It Is What It Is
by Katrinka and Nori
Summary: It's hard to explain but it's about our Oc, Elaine and her little brother, Nate, who just moved to Maxville. Just read please this is our 1st Sky High fic!
1. Elaine O'Donovan

(Nori): "Heya Folks! I'm Nori and this is my older sister, Katrinka." (Katrinka): "Hey, this is our first ever Sky High fanfic and we hope you'll like it." (N): "So without further interruption we give you, It Is What It Is!

* * *

Elaine Colma O'Donovan sighed as she and her younger brother, Nathanial, walked down the street towards Nathanial's school. Once they got there Elaine knelt down in front of her brother and hugged him.

"Alright," she said, letting go of the boy. "If anything goes wrong, you call me, okay?"

"You got it," Nathanial said, smiling at his older sister.

"No using your powers in school, okay?"

"Fine."

"And what do you say when you talk to the school councilor?"

"I'm adjusted," he began with a sigh. "I live happily with my uncle and my sister. I live in a happy home and make lots of friends. And although I sometimes wish I still had parents, I would not trade my family for anything."

"Jeez, make it sound a little more rehearsed, why don't ya?" Elaine said, rolling her eyes. "You ready, mini man?"

"Of course I am," Nathanial said, confidently. "I'll be running the school in a week."

Elaine laughed, "How about you just try to make some friends."

"Well if you want to do it the easy way," Nathanial grumbled.

"Good luck, Nate," Elaine said, kissing the boys forehead.

Just as Elaine turned to walk to her bus stop Nate called to her: "Hey, Lainey, you try to make some friends too."

"Okay, Nate," Elaine said with a slight cringe, she had never been good at making friends.

As Elaine stood in front of her bus stop she put on her dark sunglasses and thought back to everything in her life that led up to this moment. The beginning of her life was quite pleasant. Her family lived in California, out side the small town called Loyalton. She had two older brothers, one newborn baby brother, a mother, father, even a dog. The whole white picket fence dream, but happiness in this world seldom lasts.

It was the year that she turned eight. Her family was just walking into the house when the earth quack struck. Her older brothers were knocked out almost immediately by a falling beam. Her father's powers over water didn't help much, he fallowed the boys quickly. Her mother, who was holding little baby Nathanial, was the last to fall. She didn't die immediately; first she passed Nate to Elaine and told her franticly to hide under the table. She and Nathanial were the only ones to survive.

When they were rescued from the wreckage they were moved to live with their Uncle Bruce, who was now their legal guardian. Throughout Elaine's entire childhood she, her uncle and Nate moved from one place to another following her uncle's job as a travel columnist. It wasn't until the year of her sixteenth birth day that the super hero authorities found out that she and her brother had powers. They then decided that they wanted to keep an eye on them. Damn super hero bureaucracy…

That is why Elaine was now waiting for the flying bus of Sky High. She readjusted her sunglasses and sighed as the bus approached her stop. She had a feeling that this was going to be an extremely long day.

* * *

Aboard Flying School Bus

As the bus flow Elaine noticed that every other kid there was…happy. And not just "I'm satisfied with my life" happy, no they were super peppy "My life is sooo FANTASTIC that you just have to know about it" happy. Elaine really hated people like that.

As the bus lowered itself onto the floating platform that was the school and the other kids got up and continued to chat.

Walking down the hall, Elaine looked for the principle's office. She wasn't in trouble… yet. She hadn't been present for Power Placement three months ago so she now had to go through a personal one with Principle Powers, which was something she was not looking forward to.

You see, Elaine had never liked her powers.

"Ms. O'Donovan?" said a middle aged woman, interrupting Elaine's thoughts. "I'm Principle Powers. We've be waiting for you."

"Well that doesn't sound creepy," Elaine mumbled.

* * *

Inside Power's Office

"Alright," Powers said, standing up from her seat. "We've gotten the description of your powers, but we'd like you to explain them yourself."

"I have photographic reflexes and a photographic memory," she said, sighing in the same way Nate did. "If I see it done, I can do it, but I need to see it all the way through and done right. I need to keep up my own stamina. All the gymnastic training in the world won't help someone who can't lift their own weight."

"And your photographic memory is related to your powers?" Powers questioned.

"My uncle thinks so," she answered with a shrug.

"I understand your younger brother, Nathan is-"

"Nathanial," Elaine corrected.

"Your younger brother, Nathanial, is an illusionist."

"What does that have to do with my powers?" Elaine asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Nothing, nothing, we're just looking for similarities in your powers that's all."

"There aren't any," she said with the coldest tone she could manage.

"Very well," Powers cleared her throat, "let's continue. We know you have skipped your first three years of high school (Photographic memories can be very helpful), so we have you in Senior classes for anything like math or English but for 'super' classes you'll be in Sophomore classes."

"Fair enough," Elaine grumbled.

"Well," Powers said primly as she walked Elaine out of her office. "If we're finished here, I believe the welcome wagon is here to show you around."

"Welcome Wagon?" Elaine said, incredulously.

"Hey," an exuberant girl dressed in green practically shouted as Powers closed her office door. "I'm Layla Williams; I'm the president of the welcoming comity. Well actually, today I am the welcoming comity today, because Veronica Weathers is out sick this week and I don't even know where Jack Ryms is."

Layla continued on like that for quite a while until-holy crap, it's Captain America! Oh, wait, no it's just some kid in red, white and blue…bummer.

"Heya Layla," the boy said, smiling at Layla. "Who's this?"

"Hey Will, this is Elaine O'Donovan, she's a new student here."

"Ah, Welcoming Comity duty?"

"Yeah," she said smiling.

They continued to talk while Elaine slowly backed away, making her escape.

"Oh, Elaine," Layla said, crushing Elaine's hopes. "I took the liberty to check with Principle Powers and I saw that we have the same lunch period, you should sit with me and my friends."

"Sure," Elaine said, trying to smile while thinking, "Yeah… I'm not going to do that."

* * *

Lunch Time

Elaine grabbed her tray and walked through the crowded cafeteria, keeping her head down. She wasn't taking any chances of Layla and Co. seeing her. Alas, Layla had the eyes of a hawk.

"Elaine!" Layla yelled over the lunch room noise. "Over here!"

Having no excuse, Elaine walked over to the neon girl, with a resigned look on her face.

"Layla," she greeted, coldly.

"Hi, Elaine," Layla greeted, back not noticing the coldness in Elaine's voice. "These are my friends, Zack, Ethan and Magenta."

"Nice to meet you," Elaine replied with a nod. "Well, if you don't mind I need to go-"

"I thought you were going to eat with us," Layla said, tilting her head to one side like a puppy.

While Elaine tried to think of an excuse she remembered what she had told Nate, she would try to make friends.

"Curse my inability to lie to my little brother!"

"Well, I guess I can stay for a little bit," she said.

Lunch was pretty uneventful. While the others talked, Elaine was busy picking apart their personalities. Layla was obviously some sort of hippie, that was the easy one. Ethan was a spineless geek with a good heart. Zack was obnoxious, but friendly. Will was your classic All American Boy, clueless but with good intentions. Finally we have Magenta, trying desperately to be seen as an introvert, but secretly wants to be accepted. Out of all of them Magenta was probably the only one of them Elaine would normally associate with, if it weren't for the glaring fact that she was sitting here willingly.

Just as Elaine was thinking that a boy clad in leather and black ripped jeans came and sat down at the table. By now Elaine was thoroughly confused, one hippie, Captain America Boy, a glow stick, a spineless glob of jelly, one emo and now something right out of Hell's Angels! What the Heck?

"Elaine, this is Warren Peace," Layla said, still playing welcome wagon. "Warren, this is Elaine O'Donovan."

"Hey," the Hell's Angel mumbled.

Elaine simply nodded.

The bell rang to signify the end of lunch.

"Thank you," she thought, looking upwards.

"See you later Elaine," Layla said, still smiling.

Elaine didn't even respond to this, she just walked quickly out of the cafeteria.

* * *

"Last class and I'm home free," Elaine thought as she sat down at her seat in mad science.

She then noticed that the Hell's Angel -Warren- was sitting a one seat back from her.

"Hello," Mr. Medulla said, walking into the room. "Today we'll be looking at the make-up of Radioactive Sludge…"

"Oh why me?" Elaine asked, almost silently, but for some reason she could have sworn she heard Warren sinker. After a long day Elaine was tired enough to turn around and glare at him. After the initial surprise that someone actually had the guts to glare at him he did a good job of glaring back. Elaine just rolled her eyes at him then turned back to the board.

After a soul sucking session of science, Elaine was ready to go home, sadly though she still had to walk through the school (filled with people), get on the bus (also filled with people) and deal with the people who would try to talk to her. Now, we know what you're thinking, "How can this get any better?" Well we'll tell you.

"Hey Elaine," Layla called from across the hallway. "Sit with us on the bus."

Elaine felt the need to sob hopelessly but decided it would be bad for her image.

"Fine," she surrendered. "See you at the bus."

Elaine walked to her locker and put a few books away. She then looked at the picture of Nate that she put up during fourth period.

"Who's that?" a low voice from behind her asked.

Elaine turned to see Warren standing about six inches behind her.

"No lurking without a license, Creep," she said, glaring.

"That doesn't answer the question," he pointed out.

"None ya," she said, slamming her locker door shut**.**

"A person tries to make conversation…" Warren mumbled.

"His name is Nate," she said, just as Warren was about to turn around. "He's my baby brother."

Warren nodded, seeming satisfied by this answer.

"Why are you here anyway?" Elaine asked, raising an eyebrow.

Warren nodded in the direction of the locker two down from hers.

"That's you're locker," she said, not believing it.

Once more a nod.

"So I'll be seeing a lot of you?"

"Yep."

"Joy," she said, looking none too joyful. "I need to get out of here. It's not you, it's just that I'm so done with people for to day and you're a person."

Warren watched as Elaine walked quickly through the hall and out the door.

"Well she's going to be a barrel of fun," he mumbled to himself.

* * *

In bus

Elaine sat in between Layla and Will, eye twitching.

"So what are you're plans for the day, Elaine?" Layla asked.

"I'm picking up my brother from school," she answered.

"You should come to Dinner with us!"

"Maybe another time," she said, tonelessly.

After that the bus came to her stop and she made a hasty retreat.

After about an hour or so later Elaine stood in front of Nate's School as Nate and his class mates were released.

"Heya Nate," she said, smiling. "How'd you day go?"

"Great," Nate replied, jumping up and down. "My teacher likes me, she says I have chutzpa!"

"Uh-huh," Elaine said, holding back a laugh. "So what do you want for dinner?"

Elaine was in charge of dinner for herself and for Nate because their uncle worked a lot of nights.

"Hm, how about, Mexican?"

"Enchiladas it is!"

"Yea!"

* * *

Ta-da! (Katrinka): "Well that went well." (Nori): "We don't know that yet. First our lovely readers (wink) have to review." REVIEW!!


	2. Paper Lantern

(Nori): "Dadadada daaa dadadadada." (Katrinka): * Walks in to the room* "Nori, what are you doing?" (Nori): "Making theme music, duh." (Katrinka): "Riiiiight." (Nori): "Alright, if you're done questioning my theme song abilities, let's begin."

* * *

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Elaine hit the sleep button on her alarm clock; it was blinking four fifteen, like every morning. Elaine sighed and got up, stretching. She then changed into her workout gear and pulled her curly, blonde hair into a ponytail. She walked out to the backyard and began her rigorous morning workout, which consists of sit-ups, push-ups and chin-ups (she had a bar she used); she did all of this for one hour. She then took her shower and was out by five thirty, ready for breakfast.

By now Nate was up, he was groggy and bed headed, but he was up.

"Morning, Nate," Elaine said as she made his usual Friday breakfast, French toast.

"Hey," he said back through a yawn.

"Is Uncle Bruce up?" Elaine asked as she finished making Nate's French toast.

"I think so," Nate answered, pulling out the milk.

"I'll make his omelet, then."

About five minutes later Uncle Bruce came down the steps, his hair still damp from his shower. He had black hair, blue eyes and was quite handsome. Bruce Higgins had been their mother's brother and though he didn't have any powers he had always been very expectant of Nate's and Elaine's. He now worked as a writer for Maxville's biggest paper, the Maxville Times (yeah, we couldn't think of a name).

"Morning," he said as he sat down next to Nate. "Elaine would you mind making me a-"

"Omelet," Elaine finished for him, smiling. "Already on it."

"What would we do without her Nate?" Bruce asked in jest.

"Starve," Nate answered, in all seriousness.

"Probably," Bruce replied, laughing.

(One breakfast scene later)

Elaine, Nate and Bruce were all gathering up the last of their gear and going over their day plan.

"Okay, I'll be out late tonight," Bruce said as he bottoned his jacket. "So don't save dinner for me."

"What do you want to eat to night," Elaine asked Nate as she handed her uncle his briefcase.

"Chines," Nate answered.

"I'll leave money on the counter," Bruce said walking into the kitchen.

"I could just make-" Elaine began but was cut off.

"No," Bruce and Nate said in one voice as Bruce walked back out of the kitchen.

"One little accedent and I'm labled for life," she said, refering to the accedent she had when she tried to make Thai food for the first time (it was ugly, we won't go into details).

On the walk to his school Nate asked Elaine about her first day at Sky High.

"Did you make any friends?"

"Um," Elaine thought about the question for a moment. "Well, I geuss, sorta. There are a few people that hang out with me."

"What are they like?" Nate asked, woundering what type of friends his sister would have.

"Well, I geuss they're okay," Elaine said, shrugging her shoulders as they neared Nate's school. "Kinda annoying, of course I find most people annoying."

"Are you gonna see them today?" he asked, walking towards the door of his school.

"Actually, I plan on hidding from them all day," Elaine said truthfully.

To this Nate just laughed and walked into his school, leaving Elaine to take care of her plans herself.

(Much later)

It had been a long day, though more predictable than the last. Yester day night she had watched 3 hr. of spy/ marital arts sneaking material so she sneaked the entire day through and was now putting away her books, looking forward to a carefree weekend of riding and hanging out with her brother and uncle. Warren had just walked up to his, along with the boy who had the locker in between the two of them, that's when out of the corner of her eye Elaine saw a streak of green coming her way. Without hesitation Eliane dove into the locker in between hers and Warren's and pulled it shut behind her.

"Hey Warren," Layla said, her voice flowing into the locker. "Have you seen Elaine, I've been looking for her all day."

_Crap!_ Elaine thought with a panicked look on her face._ Warren had been at his locker, the odds of his missing my disappearing act are slim to none!_

Elaine held her breath and waited for Warren to rat her out. Everything was silent for a moment, Warren didn't speak, Layla didn't speak and the dude whose locker was in between Elaine's and Warren's was too busy wondering why a girl was hiding in his locker to speak.

"Nope," Warren finally said, breaking the silence. "Haven't seen her since Mad Science."

"Oh," Layla said, still sounding peppy. "If you see her say hi for me."

"Uh-huh," Warren replied as the girl walked away, and then turned to the unfortunate boy next to him. "What are you waiting for, open the locker."

The boy opened the locker immediately, reviling Elaine's small form.

Warren said nothing; he just stood there, giving Elaine a look.

"What?" She asked, indignantly. "Like you didn't hide from her the first couple of weeks you knew her."

"I don't think I went to this extreme," Warren said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not going that far."

"You're in a locker!"

"My locker," said the boy who was still trying to just put his book away and grab his sweater.

"I'm aware," Elaine said to Warren as he gave the boy his death glare.

"You are so weird," was Warren's only response.

"You're just jealous because you can't fit in a locker," Elaine said, stepping out of the locker and walking down the hall with her nose in the air.

"She really is crazy," Warren said, walking away to his bus.

The boy, who had been standing behind Warren, jumped to his locker and shoved his books into it. "HA!"

* * *

Elaine sighed with relief as she drove down the streets of Maxville towards Nate's school. She rode a silver Harley Davidson, Sportster 883 Low. Nate's helmet and thick jacket were in for him in the saddle bag, waiting for the small boy. It had been Elaine and Nate's tradition to take a ride every Friday ever since Elaine got her motorcycle license.

Nate was bouncing on the curb waiting for Elaine when she came to his school. Their rides had always been one of his favorite things.

"Finally! What did you do, ten miles per hour all the way here?"

"Good to see you to mini-man, now put on your helmet. Before we ride off are you still hooked on Chinese food tonight?"

"Yep."

"Ok then I passed a place on my way here that looked good, hop on."

The next ten were spent in silent riding and Nate telling Elaine all about his day at each stop light. This was just how Elaine liked her Friday nights, her brother and her bike all to themselves and at the end of the day no dishes. Elaine smiled happily as she pulled in to the parking lot of the small Chinese restaurant.

"The Paper Lantern…well it sounds good," Nate said, reading the name. "If it tastes good we have a close by alternative if you burn dinner."

"When dose that ever happen?"

"I'm just saying it's not impossible."

"Your just saying you want to eat out more."

"Maybe."

"Definitely." Elaine shot back as they walked though the door

It was at this point that Elaine's evening took a decided turn for the crazy. For lo and behold in the third center booth sat the Sky high welcome wagon and crew. Elaine grabbed Nate by the shoulders and tried to back out of the restaurant, however Nate did not understand his sisters need to get out of there and started to complain…loudly. Loudly enough in fact to attract the attention of the welcome committee herself.

"Elaine! Hey, come sit with us, we haven't ordered yet!"

Nate upon hearing his sister's name dragged her up to the table.

"Well it's kinda my brother's night and I…" Elaine started with every intention of getting the heck away from them as fast as possible, but Nate (the sneaky little devil) interrupted her.

"That sounds great, Elaine let's sit with your friends."

Elaine sent him a quick glare and Nate just smirked back, he knew he could get away with this and that he would spend the night seeing how far he could push it be for her introverted nature over whelmed her sisterly love.

It really is for her own good, part of him thought. And the fact that I'll enjoy it isn't important…riiight, thought the other less good side.

"Who's the squirt?" asked the purple chick; Elaine thought her name was Magenta.

"This is my little brother Nate," Elaine said. "Nate these are some of my classmates, Layla, Zack, Will, Magenta and Ethan."

"Hey little dude," Zack said, putting his hand out to Nate's_. _

Nate smiled and gave Zack a high five.

After about ten minutes Nate and Elaine were sitting down at the table waiting for their meals.

"So how are you enjoying school, Elaine?" Layla asked, sipping her green tea.

"Fine," Elaine answered while looking for escape routs.

The waitress came to the table with their food, so all conversations were off for a bit.

After he finished his meal Nate talked to Zack and Ethan.

"So you can make anything appear," Ethan said, marveling at the small boy's powers.

"Sorta, I can make any image that I've seen appear," Nate explained. "I can also play them like a movie."

"Oh, sweet!" Zack exclaimed. "Can you show us?"

"Sure, what do you want to see?"

"Anything's fine."

"Hm, how about my sister first thing in the morning when she found the alligator I put in the bath tub?"

"Yes," everyone at the table shouted.

"Nathanial Michel O'Donovan," Elaine began in a threatening voice. "If you dare…"

He dared, the simulation had already started. Luckily Nate had been smart and played it in a corner, unluckily he didn't skimp of any of the details. So there in the corner was half of the O'Donovan's bath room with Elaine walking into it dressed in her night shirt. She than turned to the bath tub and began to scream and curse at the large reptile.

As Elaine blushed at the whole scene, which is saying something because it takes a lot to make Elaine blush, her cell phone began to play her uncle's signature ring tone, Stray Cat Strut.

"Uncle," she answered. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to tell you to pick up milk on the way home."

"Okay we'll be home in a couple of minutes," Elaine said, thinking on her toes.

"No you guys don't have to come home just yet," Bruce said.

"Okay, see you soon," she said, putting the money for her and Nate's food on the table.

"Wha- oh! What did Nate do?" You could hear the smirk on his voice.

"Bye," Elaine said, closing the phone. "Sorry guys, we gotta go. Come on Nate."

"Aw," he said, grabbing his box of leftovers. "But I was gonna show them the time you said that word you told me never to repeat."

"Nathanial, door!"

Nate and Elaine walked to the door just as Warren came out of the kitchen.

He looked at his friends who were still giggling over Elaine and Nate's banter_._

_"_Anyone want to tell me why Madam Lou is yelling about an alligator in the restaurant_?"_

At that point everyone burst out laughing_._

"You had to be there," Will said, in between laughs_._

Warren rolled his eyes and walked back into the kitchen.

(Outside)

"You are in sooo much trouble," Elaine said as she and Nate walked out to her cycle. "You are going to live a phone less, friendless, Amish life!"

Nate laughed at this, only because he knew she didn't mean it (you know, probably).

"You like them enough that you can be embarrassed around them," he said as he put on his helmet. "This is a very good sign."

"Oh so you did that for my own good?"

"Yes," he said grinning maniacally_._

"Forget it, let's just pick up the milk and go home_."_

"So Uncle didn't tell you to come home? Hey guys, we can stay!"

"Hush or so help me; I will shove you into my saddle bag!" (JOKE)

* * *

That's all we're writing tonight, because it's almost three in the morning and we're tired. (Katrinka): "Speak for yourself, I rock best at night." (Nori): "Well you can't type, night or day." (Katrinka): "Can so, I'm just not good at it. Aw well, night folks."


	3. Mechanics

*Nori and Katrinka walk into room, heads bowed* (K): "We are sorry for our sudden stop." (N): "We forgot about you and it was wrong." (K): "We ought to be taken out back and be beaten with crowbars and the like for our carelessness." (N): "But we're back now and we've got a brand new chapter for you!" (K): "Please review!"

* * *

Saturday, wonderfully peaceful. Elaine took another sip of her tea as Nate bounced through the kitchen. She glared at him slightly, the memories of the Paper Lantern still fresh in her mind.

"You're not still angry are you?" He asked, grinning sheepishly.

"What me? Naw, I enjoy having my five-thirty A.M. pajama clad image flashed through the local Chinese restaurant," Elaine answered, sarcastically.

"Aw, don't be mad," Nate said, flashing his puppy eyes.

"I'm not mad," Elaine said with a sigh. "So what are you doing today?"

"Uncle Bruce is going to take me to Little League tryouts!" Nate replied, excited.

"Yep," Bruce said, walking into the kitchen. "There's nothing more American than Little League. What are you doing today?"

"I've gotta bring my bike in for inspection," Elaine groaned. "I hate mechanics!"

"Come on Lainey," Nate said, eating a granola bar. "They can't _all_ be bad."

"Look Nate," Elaine said, opening her own granola bar. "There's only one good mechanic I can think of and that's the Fonz."

"Alright Nate," Bruce said, picking the small boy up off the bench. "Off to the ball game!"

"No using your powers," Elaine said as her uncle and brother walked towards the door.

"Aw, not even a little bit?" Nate said, trying to barter.

"No," Elaine said firmly. "I don't want a repeat of the Chesapeake Soccer tryouts."

"Oh come on," Nate said, rolling his eyes. "That was, like, a year ago."

"It was six months ago, don't exaggerate," Elaine then turned to Bruce. "If he tries anything you have my permission to tie him up and put him in the trunk of the Focus."

"Come on Nate," Bruce said smiling. "You heard the lady, no illusions."

"Ok," Nate said as he walked out the door.

After her uncle and brother left Elaine sat down on the couch with a sigh, aw well, might as well find a mechanic. She began to thumb through the yellow pages and found that Maxville had three Auto Repair shops and only two of them handled motorcycles. Number one was all the way on the other side town, so option two it was.

Elaine grabbed her helmet and walked out to the garage. Within moments she was speeding down the road towards Vinny's Auto Repair. Vinny's was a small garage, probably family owned and operated since forever. Behind the counter was an old man reading an issue of National Geographic.

"Hi," she began. "My bike needs an inspection, where do I-"

"Take it out to the back garage," he interrupted, not even looking up from his magazine. "Whosever is out there will see to it."

"_Service with a smile," _Elaine thought with a small grin as she rolled her bike into the back. When she got into the garage Elaine saw a pair of boots sticking out from under a rusty truck.

"Hey," Elaine called to whoever was attached to the boots. "When you're finished, I need your help with my bike."

"*grunt*"

Elaine decided to take the noise as an affirmative and sat down with her book to wait. It had been about ten minute when Elaine heard the work sled (the board thingy that mechanics use to work under the car) slide out from under the truck. Elaine put her book down and stood up, only to find Warren Peace, of all people, standing in front of the truck.

"Holy hell," she said in an exasperated tone. "You people are everywhere!"

"Who's you people?" Warren asked, throwing in a glare for good measure.

"You, Stronghold and his Merry Men!"

"First of all, you ever refer to me as a "Merry Man" again and I'll char grill your ass. Second of all, I'm not everywhere, I'm here working my shift."

"Alright, alright," she said. "I'm hear to get my bike checked out, not barbeque.

"So what do you need for your bike," Warren said, ignoring her last comment.

"Just make sure the brakes won't give out on a hill and I'll be satisfied."

"It'll take me about half an hour," Warren replied, now looking at the bike.

"M'k," Elaine said, picking up her book.

Warren began to work on the bike and Elaine tried to focus on her book, however she hadn't even read a full page when she was interrupted by…

"Jeez O'Donovan, when was this thing last inspected?"

Elaine felt the urge to argue well up in her chest, but quickly crushed it because she knew his comment was completely justified.

"It's been a year at least" She sighed, "When you are on the road, a new town or city every 4 or 5 months it's hared to find a reliable mechanic."

Warren continued working with out looking up. "On the road?"

For the past 3 months Elaine had all but refused to talk about her drastic change in life style. Even with her Uncle, except to tell him that she didn't blame him. She had actively tried not to be very open with personal details at school. However, for reasons unknown Elaine felt compelled to answer him.

"Yeah, before the F.H.P.A.P. (Future Hero Protect and Training Program) figured out that my brother and I are supers we lived caravan style, my Uncle was a travel columnist."

"Hey, speaking of your brother, what happened at the Paper Lantern last night?"

"Wha- how do you know about that!?"

"According to Stronghold I missed the most hilarious thing since Zack ate a Firefly."

Elaine cocked her head, "I don't remember seeing you there."

"I was in the kitchen."

Elaine's eyes widened. "You work there too?!"

"Yup."

"Ok would you give me a list of the places you DON'T work?"

Warren paused in his work for a minuet and pretended to seriously consider the question.

"Well, I don't work at the tanning salon on Lakeview Dr."

"Then I'll be there for the remainder of my stay in Maxville."

"However," he said smirking "My aunt owns and operates it."

Elaine growled at Warrens back for a moment, then said "I'm going to get a soda." and stalked off.

Elaine walked over to the vending machine shaking her head and pulling out her wallet. She put her dollar into the machine and about five seconds later it was spit back out. She repeated this process about six times before she threw her hands in the air and yelled.

"COME ON, DAMN IT!" She yelled, grabbing Warren's attention.

"What is it?" He asked while he checked the bikes oil.

"For some reason every last one of these stupid machines thinks it's hilarious to keep all Dr. Peppers from my grasp!" Elaine said, giving the evil machine a kick.

Warren couldn't help but chuckle at Elaine's theatrics.

"Fine, go ahead, laugh at my pain," Elaine said in a sulky voice. "See what kind of tip you get."

"You don't give mechanics tips," Warren pointed out.

"Yes, but you do work at the Paper Lantern and I can go in there, buy nothing but water and tea and then leave giving you a lousy tip," Elaine said, obviously happy with her plans for revenge.

"You never told me about your little brother," Warren said, changing the subject.

"Nate thought it'd be funny to star making illusions in the middle of the restaurant," Elaine said, cringing.

"So that's his power," Warren said, it was more a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Elaine said, she then walked back over to the soda machine and tried to insert her dollar once more only to have it spat out again.

"Oh come on," she grumbled.

Warren laughed and finally took mercy on the poor girl's soul. He walked over to Elaine and took her dollar out of her hand.

"Hey," she said, trying to snatch it back.

Warren simply put up one finger to symbolize that he only needed a minute. He then walked to the back of the vending machine, pried open a black plate and pulled out a Dr. Pepper.

"It's been broken for years," he said, referring to the machine.

"You knew that the entire time," Elaine practically shouted.

"Yep," Warren said, smirking while he put the dollar in his back pocket.

"You're a jerk," she said snatching her Dr. Pepper.

"I know," Warren replied, smirk still in place. "Your bike is done, if you come inside the main office building I can ring you up."

"What do I own ya?" Elaine said, once they got in the building where the old man had been.

"128.65," Warren said looking up from the cash register.

"Now I remember why I hate mechanics," she muttered under her breath as she pulled out her wallet.

"We hope you have enjoyed the service provided for you here and that you will come," Warren said sarcastically.

"Ass," Elaine said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh," Warren put a hand over his heart. "You wound me (this made Elaine smile, like actually smile). I'll go get your for you."

Warren came back through the gate, pushing Elaine's bike.

"Here you go," he said, putting down the kick stand so that she could get on.

"See ya later," Elaine said, pulling herself over her bike.

On the ride home Elaine was tired but happy and couldn't wait to just sit down on the couch and vegout.

"_Well, at least I found a good mechanic," _she thought, smiling slightly.

* * *

Hopefully that makes up for our blatant disregard for this fanfic over the past few weeks.

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.

P.S. Arthur Fonzarelli is awesome and Happy Days never should have been taken off the air, that's all we're saying.


	4. FHPAP sucks

(N): "Okay, so this probably our last chapter until after the weekend so let's get'r'done." (K): "Larry the Cable guy is gonna sue." (N): "Eep! I don't own the phrase "get'r'done", don't sue me!" (K): "Much better, now let's get to the story."

Elaine yawned as she walked through the Sky High hallways. She sighed as she saw Layla walking towards her. _"Well, I'm going to be here a while,"_ she thought, mentally shrugging. _"Might as well get use to her."_

"Hi Elaine," Layla said, smiling. "How are you?"

"Pretty good," Elaine said. "How about yourself?"

"I'm doing great, thanks."

At that moment the bell rang.

"Aw shit," she said, turning away from Layla. "Sorry Layla, gotta run."

She was going to be late, there was no doubt. Her class was clear on the other side of school. As she ran through the hall ways Elaine smiled, she loved physical activity. She had been running for about three minutes when she bumped into a middle aged man.

"Jeez," she said, stumbling to the side. "Sorry, I'm in a hurry."

"What's your name?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Elaine," she answered, nervously.

"Your _full_ name," he clarified.

"Elaine Colma O'Donovan," Elaine reiterated.

"Ah, just the person I wanted to see," the man said, smiling for the first time. "Follow me, please."

"Great," Elaine muttered as she followed the man. "I've been here for less then a whole week and I'm already in trouble."

Elaine and the man (he was a teacher for Sidekick History) walked until they made it to Powers office. Powers secretary smiled and instructed Elaine to go right in.

Elaine was slightly shocked to find that instead of Principle Powers behind the desk there was a man in a bland suit with slicked back, black/gray hair. Now in almost any other situation this man would seem completely normal, but Elaine knew exactly what he was as soon as she saw him.

"Elaine O'Donovan?" the man asked from behind the desk.

"You know very well who I am, don't pretend," Elaine said, sharply.

"Of course," the man behind the desk said smiling. "My name is Luke Manson; I'm an agent of F.H.P.A.P."

"Of course you are," Elaine said, rolling her eyes.

"Look Elaine," Luke said, finally dropping the "I'm a nice guy" act. "We've gotta talk."

"Do we now?" Elaine asked, innocently.

"You know I need answers from you and your brother's not talking," he said glaring.

"Whoa, hold it!" Elaine said standing up. "You all made a deal, you stay away from Nate."

"That was never made a formal agreement," Agent Manson pointed out. "We just need to talk about some people that you've come in contact with."

"I'm not talking to you until you promise to leave Nate alone," Elaine said firmly.

"Fine," he said with a sigh, he then began to take a bunch of folders out of his bag. "Now, I need you to look at these files. There are quite a lot of them so you might want to get started."

"What is all of this?" Elaine asked, looking through the first file.

"People that you knew before you were located," Agent M. answered. "We need to know if any of them could possibly know what you and/or brother can do."

"Everyone?" Elaine asked, looking at the huge stacks of paper.

"Not exactly everyone," he replied, looking vaguely sheepish.

Elaine looked in one of the files.

"Cynthia Eminnis," Elaine said, looking up from the file. "I haven't seen her since the fourth grade!"

"Ok, so everyone," Agent M. said, rolling eyes.

"You realize that I developed my powers in the fifth grade, right?"

"Well that's one less file for you to look over," Agent M. said, taking the file and putting it in the trash.

Elaine began to groan when the bell suddenly rang.

"Whelp," Elaine said standing up. "As much as I would love to stay and hang out with you all day, and you know would, I have to go to class."

Just as Elaine made it to the door Agent M. crushed her hopes and dreams.

"Actually, we told your teachers that you may or may not be in class today," he said, looking smug. "They were very understanding."

Elaine narrowed her eyes at the man and sat back down in her chair.

In the end it took Elaine five hours and one lunch break to get through all the names and by the time she was finished she was cranky, hungry and ready to kill the next F..P. Agent she saw (luckily none crossed her path).

After finished her make up lunch, Elaine only had mad science left. When she made it there she sat down with a thud at her desk.

"What's your problem?" Warren asked from behind her.

"F.H.P.A.P. sucks," was her only reply.

Warren just shrugged his shoulders and looked back down to the picture he was carving into his desk using a Spork (sporks are AWESOME!).

After a few minutes Medulla (or Big Head as Elaine had so affectionately dubbed him) walked into the room yammering on about homework, the upcoming science project and something about space ooze radiation.

"_And so begins the mind numbing wonderland of Mad Science," Elaine thought, banging her head into her desk._

AT ELAINE'S LOCKER

Elaine was pulling her sweater out of her locker when Warren walked over to his own and began to put away some of his books.

"So," he said, not looking away from his locker. "You gonna tell me why F.H.P.A.P. sucks?"

"Why would it matter to you?" Elaine asked, also not looking up from her locker.

"You seemed…troubled," Warren said awkwardly, feelings were obviously not his strong suit.

Elaine looked at him shocked for a second.

"Are you feeling ok?" she asked razing an eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't I?" Warren said, starting to get defensive.

"Cause you just said something kind, caring even."

At this Warren just rolled his eyes and looked back to his locker.

"Seriously," Elaine said. "Do you have a fever? Oh, wait, that's redundant."

"More like retarded," Warren muttered.

Elaine made a face at him and began grab stuff out of her locker again. Warren just stood there looking at her expectantly.

"What?" Elaine asked once she couldn't take it any longer.

"You still haven't explained to me where you were all morning."

"When did you become my babysitter?" Elaine asked, rolling her eyes.

"When you disappeared and Layla forced me to figure out what was wrong," Warren answered.

"Fine," Elaine answered with a sigh. "F.H.P.A.P. is rooting through my past."

"You know you don't have to let them question you," Warren told her. "After the stuff with my da- after some stuff happened they started to bug me a lot, so I researched them and they have no right to hold you or question you if you haven't committed any crimes."

"Yeah," Elaine said, shoulders slumping. "But if I don't co-operate they could make things really hard for Nate."

Warren watched as Elaine's face twisted in pain at the thought of something happening to her brother.

"Sorry," was the best he could muster.

"Yeah well, shit happen," Elaine said, she then looked up and gave Warren a questioning look. "Why did I tell you all of this?"

"Cause if you didn't Layla would have bugged you to no end," he answered right away.

"Man, she rules over us all, doesn't she?"

"It's sad to say, but true."

Elaine shook her head and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "See you tomorrow, Peace."

"Yeah," Warren said leaning on his locker, wondering why F.H.P.A.P. was bugging a sixteen year old girl and her kid brother_._

______________________________________________________________________________________(K): "Ok folks, that's all for tonight. _We're tired and have school in the morning so, this will have to do for now, isn't that right Nori?" (N): "I am no longer Nori." (K): "What?!?" (N): "I am now the Tater-tot formally known as Nori." (K): "That's it folks, she has finally lost all her marbles. She's crazy, over the rainbow, a couple sandwiches short of a picnic basket, wacko-" (N): "Not Wacko, Wanko! Wanko the Sane, WHOO-HOO!!"

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.


	5. two words, Dodge Ball

(N): "And now, the moment you've all been waiting…the gym scene!" (K): "That's right, all Sky High fics need them and ours is going to FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!" (N): "Yep, cause we've got a little surprise for you." (K) *to Nori*: "Hey, have you noticed that we finish each other's sentences?" (N): "Yeah, it's part of our charm." (K): "I always thought it was a little odd." (N): "That's part of our charm." (K): "Is that your excuse for everything?" (N): "Yep." (K): "That's really annoying." (N): "It's part of my-" (K): "Shut up you weirdo." (N): *tear drop*

Elaine yawned as she looked around the bus, which was sadly almost completely filled. Her options of seat neighbors was a boy reading a star wars novel (they exist), a girl texting a girl on the other side of the bus and that purple girl that hangs out with Stronghold and Co. Purple girl was obviously the only choice. As Elaine walked towards the seat she noticed that the girl was wearing an arm brace.

"Hey," Elaine said, sitting down.

"Hey," Magenta replied.

Ethan, who was sitting behind Magenta, also greeted Elaine in a similar manner.

"So what happened to your arm?" Elaine asked, nonchalantly.

"Honestly," Magenta said, looking around the bus to make sure no one was paying attention to them. "Nothing, I'm faking it."

"Why?"

"Didn't you hear?" Magenta asked, looking at Elaine like she was crazy. "It's dodge ball day."

"Dodge ball," Elaine's eyes widened.

"Yep," Ethan answered for Magenta. "Every year the school has two super powered dodge ball matches, one for the heroes and one for the sidekicks. They last almost all morning."

"Turning into a guinea pig doesn't really help on the dodge ball court," Magenta explained.

All of this was wasted on Elaine because she heard nothing after the words "dodge ball". Of all the sports in the world dodge ball was Elaine's favorite. It combined speed, agility, strength, guts and a very lenient rule book; all the makings of the greatest game ever.

Once the bus arrived at school Elaine ran all the way to her locker, excited to get in to her gym gear. Sadly though for some reason, the lock on her locker just wasn't working to day.

"Oh, come on," she muttered, glaring at the lock.

This is one of those times that Elaine's powers came in handy. When she was twelve Elaine watched a man pick the lock in the back of a 7 Eleven and of course she remembered it perfectly.

"Ha! Lock me out will you?" She muttered as she broke the picked the lock. "That will teach ya."

"What did the locker do to deserve your wrath?" Warren said, making Elaine jump.

"Jeez, oh man," Elaine said, clutching her hand over her heart. "You can't just do that to people, Warren, it's creepy."

"Did you just pick your lock?" Warren asked, ignoring her question.

"Maybe, why do you need to know?" She asked.

"It's just a question" He replied.

"Well yes," she said sheepishly. "I wanted to get my gym stuff and get to the gym as fast as possible."

"Wanted to get your beating over with fast?" He asked with a slight smirk.

Elaine paused in her movements of shutting her locker and gave her obviously clueless class mate a side long glance. She briefly wondered how much amusement she could get out of this…quite a bit really. Enough that she decided to risk it.

"What makes you think I'm gonna get beaten?"

"What makes you think that you won't?"

"I used to be pretty good at doge ball."

Warren snorted and pulled his English book out of his locker, "Pretty good doesn't cut it with Couch Boom, and you should know that by now."

"Well you seem confident, are you sure you are up to loud mouths standards?"

"More than sure." he replied smirking.

"Than how do you feel about a little wager?"

He turned from his locker and eyed her questioningly; Elaine watched curiosity, irritation and a little suspicion war on his face. Curiosity won.

"The terms being?" he asked.

Elaine cheered mentally. "The one of us at that knocks the other out more wins."

"Loser goes to the Syfy convention next week, takes their picture with Spock and sends it to the winner."

"Wow, you sure you want to risk that I won't send that picture to every one you know?" Elaine asked.

"You're the one who should be worried O' Donavan." Warren replied.

"Till gym than."

"Yeah,"

Elaine walked into the gym, a look of pure determination on her face. She knew this was it, she had to win or she was in for a long night with every treky in Maxville. Everyone in the gym was apparently feeling the same tension as Elaine and Warren because they were all stretching like there was no tomorrow. You could practically hear Eye of the Tiger echoing off the walls.

"Ready to lose, O'Donovan?" Warren asked as he walked up in his red team uniform.

"If you think you're gonna beat me, you're out of your mind," Elaine said, sliding a blue jersey on over her gym close.

"We'll see," Warren said, smirking.

"Alright," Coach Boomer said, as the two teams went to their separate sides of the gym. "I expect to see a good game out there. That means use as many underhanded tricks as possible, I mean it. I expect to see lasers to be shot, flames to be thrown and all flight powers to be practiced."

Elaine looked over to the blue team and took special care to note where Warren and Stronghold were; sadly Layla was on her team so she had to make sure Warren didn't hit her.

"_Ok,"_ Elaine thought as she got ready to run for the center of the gym. _"Just like all the sports channels that you've watched. You've watched all the legends, you can beat him."_

"Ready! Set!" Elaine looked Warren in the eye from across the gym. "GO!"

The whistle blew and just like that kids were running all over the place grabbing the violent red projectiles.

Elaine was throwing a ball when Warren sent a flaming one her way, luckily she had watched the Olympics last summer so she was able to flip out of the way. Warren looked confused for a second, this is when Elaine realized that she never told him her powers.

"_Oh, well this could be fun," _Elaine thought as she was struck by a wondrous idea. Elaine dodged and ran to a boy on her team who could shoot webs. She explained her plan to him as she threw a ball that knocked a boy with six arms over. The web spinning boy grinned and shot a long, strong line across the top of the gym like a tightrope.

Elaine did an amazing flip up to the rope began to walk over the gym, catching the balls as they flew over other peoples heads. _"Thank you, Cirque Du Soleil_," Elaine thought as she nailed Stronghold in the head as he flew down to help a fellow teammate up. _"That's what you get for good sportsmanship."_

Warren got the good idea to shoot a flame up and burned through the rope. Now you should understand that Elaine never screams, she makes this terribly squeaky "eep" sound, which is exactly what she did as she grabbed the burnt end of the web/rope. She swung to the side of the gym and slid down quickly. The next hour went like this, neither Elaine nor Warren got hit and the teams were wearing thin.

Then Elaine saw it, an opening, an escape from a Syfy weekend. Elaine wound up her pitch and threw as hard as she could and waited for what seemed like an eternity and then "SMACK" the sound of the ball hitting the side of Warren's head echoed through the gym. Warren looked at Elaine with big eyes and an open mouth, success. With their best player out the red team lost quickly and Warren never got off the bench to get Elaine back.

Elaine walked out of the girl locker room smiling triumphantly.

"Well Warren," she said as the brooding boy approached her. "Ready to brush up on your Vulcan?"

"That was a lucky shot," He muttered shoving his gym clothes into his locker.

"Oh contraire, mon frere," Elaine said smiling. "That was watching Jose Contreras pitch."

"What a pitcher for the Phillies have to do with your Dodge Ball skills?" Warren asked as they walked towards Mad Science together.

"I can mimic people," she replied.

"That explains the tightrope act back there, huh?"

"Yep," Elaine said as they entered the classroom.

"Interesting," Warren said sitting down behind Elaine as Medulla walked in.

"Alright class," he said in his usual monotone voice. "Because of your prolonged gym class we've only got a half hour so let's review the Doomsday Machine blueprints."

And that's how yet another half hour was wasted.

"Class, one last thing before I let you go," Medulla said, at the end of class. "If you will think back to your last class you will remember that I mentioned a project that will count for 45% of you grade final grade for this semester. You and your assigned partner will create a miniature Doomsday device, preferably not operational, and show the rest of the class how to disable it. You will be partnered up alphabetically. It is due three weeks from today, so you might want to get started soon. "

Elaine's eyes got big, Michael Norse was the resident bad boy at Sky High, if you didn't count Warren, but Warren and Michael were on two totally different levels. Warren was creepy and foreboding and wore a lot of black. Michael, on the other hand, was a delinquent, violent teenager with a record. Not to mention the fact that he was totally perverted. Now this wouldn't matter if it weren't for the fact the his last name was Norse, which starts with an N, which is the letter that come right before O. WHICH IS THE FIRST LETTER OF HER LAST NAME!

As Medulla went through the list Elaine closed her eyes and waited for the enviable.

"Monica Lamment and Haley Morris, William Mitchell and Lily Mints, Rodger Mints and Michael Norse."

Elaine looked up, it was a miracle!

"Elaine O'Donovan and Warren Peace."

With a healthy does of reality.

The rest of the partner were announced, the bell rang, people talked and Elaine turned to talk to Warren but he was already out of his chair and headed for the door.

Elaine shrugged and took her time getting to her locker, knowing that he would be there.

"So how are we going to do this?" Elaine asked as she approached her "partner".

"I don't know," Warren said with a shrug.

"Well we need to start, sooo…Your house or mine?"

"What?" Warren said, obviously he hadn't been paying attention the whole conversation.

"Do you wanna study at your house or mine?" Elaine repeated.

"Uh, your house is probably better," Warren said slowly.

"Ok, what night are you free?"

"Uh…" Warren rolled his eyes to the back of his head to go through his mental schedule. "I usually I have the Friday night shift at the Paper Lantern, but I got off this week."

"Friday it is," Elaine said. "Five O'clock good for you?"

"Sounds good," Warren said, closing his locker. "See ya, O'Donovan."

Elaine watched him go for a minute before yelling, "I expect to see that picture with Spock soon."

"Oh, shut up."

(K): "Yeah, we know that their school day was ridiculously short and no, we don't care." (N): "Also we don't own Cirque du Soleil or Jose Contreras of the Philadelphia Phillies." (K): "Hope you like it, we'll update soon as we can."

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.


	6. Dinner Guest

(K): "Hello *sigh*" (N): "What's wrong, big sister?" (K): "Oh nothing, it's just that we've only got 8 reviews and after all the hard work we've put into this fic." (N): "Aww *Gives Katrinka a hug* its ok, I'm sure all these nice people will review, right guys?"

PS: We're skipping ahead to Friday, so as to keep the story moving.

Elaine parked her bike in the parking lot of Nate's school on the warm Friday afternoon.

"Hey kid," she said as Nate ran towards her.

"Are we eating out tonight?" Nate asked as he put on his helmet.

"Nope, we're making pizza," Elaine answered as she turned on her bike.

"Cool, why?"

"We're having a guest."

4:58 PM

Warren parked his black 1976 Ford Elite on the road outside of Elaine's house. While on the outside Warren was very calm on the inside two different sides of him were arguing, one said that they shouldn't be making friends with Elaine, it was already bad enough that he had grown to like Stronghold and Co. The other side wanted to go to Elaine's house purely for curiosity's sake, he still didn't know what happened at the Paper Lantern and wanted to know what Elaine's brother was like.

"_When did I get as gossipy as Madam Lou?" _He asked himself mentally as he walked up to the door.

A few seconds after Warren rang the doorbell Elaine answered it wearing an apron covered in flour.

"Heya Warren," she said smiling slightly.

"Hey," Warren muttered back ;as he stepped through the doorway. The house had an open floor plan and old molding. Everything was painted earth-tones. To the left there was a sitting room with a large couch in the back and a few half empty boxes in the corners.

"I'll be ready to in a few minutes," Elaine said, pulling her hair out of the pony tail it had been in previously. "I've got to get the flour off of me, you can set up on the dinning room table if you want."

And with that she turned on her heels and left the room. Warren shrugged and walked over to the dining room.

"Hey," said a voice from behind him. Warren turned to see a boy about half his height and brown hair and green eyes was standing behind him. It took Warren a minute to recognize him as Elaine's little brother.

"Hey," Warren said back.

"You're Elaine's friend, right?" Nate asked, with a slight smile.

"Sorta," Warren answered.

"I'm Nate," he said smiling.

"Warren," he replied, shaking the boy's outstretched hand.

"Wait," Nate said, smile growing. "You're the one who lights things on fire, right?"

"Yeah," Warren said, one eyebrow raised.

"Ah," Nate said nodding as the room suddenly burst into FLAMES!

"AAAHHHH!," Nate shrieked as he ran around covered in fire.

"Wait, no," Warren said, trying to turn the flames off. "I can't turn them off!"

Elaine heard all the yelling and ran into the room.

"What the hell is going on in here?" She yelled looking from Nate to Warren.

"IT'S NOT ME!" Warren yelled, starting to panic. "I swear!"

Elaine turned to Nate with a classic big sister glare.

"Nathanial, knock it off!"

"Fine," Nate said, rolling his eyes as the flames left as suddenly as they came. "You're no fun anymore."

"Wh- And the- And I- With fire and and the… what?" Much to Warren's horror he found himself stuttering for the first time in years.

"I'm sorry," Elaine said, pulling Warren to a chair. "That's my fault, I let him watch Furnace last night."

"He just…did _that_?" Warren asked looking at Nate who was trying to look innocent (and failing miserably).

"It was just a joke," Nate said, looking at his feet.

"Not funny Nate," Elaine said, glaring at the boy. "You ok?"

"Of course I am," Warren said, standing up shakily. "That just threw me off for a minute."

"Right," Elaine said, rolling her eyes. "Nate, what do you have to say?"

"I'm sorry I scared you out of your mind," Nate said with a slightly sadistic grin.

Warren glared at the boy but couldn't hold back a little smile, he was funny.

"Alright Nate," Elaine said, turning the boy around. "Why don't you go feed O'Henry (Their brand new pet gold fish) and let us study for our science project in peace."

"Ok I'm going," Nate said grabbing the fish feed off the table.

"So…" Elaine said, flipping open her mad science note book. "What type of dooms day device are you most interested in?"

"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?" Warren asked, also opening his book.

"Maybe just a smidge, but seriously, which one?"

"Did you just use the word "Smidge"?"

"Are you shamelessly avoiding the subject?"

"I reeealy hate Mad Science," Warren said, glaring at the book.

"Of course you do, everyone does," Elaine said. "The point is not to enjoy, it's to survive."

"Wow, that's not at depressing at all," Warren said, rolling his eyes.

"Only a bit, now come on. We've got work to do."

The next hour or so went on much like this, they'd read for about twenty minutes, made a comment about how something stupid and then go back to studying. They had decided on an anthrax dispersing device for their project and were looking over the blueprints of Master Matrix's version of the awful device when the oven started to beep.

"Ah, that would be dinner," Elaine said, walking over to the kitchen. "Clear the books off the table would you?"

"Sure, what are we eating?"

"PIZZA," Nate answered running in to the kitchen at break-neck speed.

"That answers that question," Warren muttered to himself as Elaine came out carrying a cutting board. She was followed by Nate who was running around her repeating the word "pizza" over and over again.

"Nate, how much sugar have you eaten today?" Elaine asked putting the pizza down.

"Not a lot," Nate answered, still jumping up and down.

Elaine gave Nate a skeptical look.

"Okay, I ate my entire stash of Halloween candy," he admitted. "And it wasn't even stale! And that's amazing, cause October was six months ago."

"Good luck," Warren said to Elaine as Nate continued to jitter.

"You're lucky, you can go home."

"Hey," Nate interrupted. "You want to see something cool?"

"Um…sure," Warren said as he ate his pizza.

Nate closed his eyes and suddenly on the wall a dark swamp appeared. It took Warren moment to realize that the picture was actually a movie.

"What is that?" Warren said, an amused grin on his face.

"The Fire Swamp (Princess Bride)," Elaine answered.

"And that's not all," Nate said proudly.

He closed his eyes once more and the entire room became part of the Fire Swamp as Wesley got tackle by an R.O.U.S. (Rodents Of Unusual Size).

Warren looked around and whistled, genuinely impressed by the small boy.

"You must have a lot of fun at school," he said.

"Nope," Nate replied. "Elaine says I'm not allowed to use my powers at school."

"And you listen to her?" Warren asked, causing Elaine to glare at him.

"You don't have an older sister, do you?" Nate asked.

"No, I'm an only child."

"Ah, you'll learn," Nate said wisely. "When I was a baby I didn't just have a big sister, I had big brothers too."

Warren looked Elaine, who was very interested in her pizza all of the sudden. He would have questioned this except at that moment a man with dark hair entered the room. He looked around the room, not looking too surprised.

"Movie night, eh?" He asked smiling.

"Hey Uncle," Elaine said, smiling. "This Warren, he's my science partner."

"Nice to meet you Warren," Bruce said, grabbing a slice of pizza.

"You too," Warren said, nodding to the man.

"Hey Uncle," Nate said. "Guess what, I ate all of my Halloween candy today!"

"Oh boy," Bruce said, rubbing his forehead.

"My sentiments exactly,' Elaine said with a grin.

After they finished up dinner Warren cleared his plate, thanked Elaine for the meal and said goodbye to Nate and Bruce. He then walked out the door, sat in his car and finally expressed his main thought of the night.

"Wow."

(N): "That's all for tonight folks, remember to review, if only for Katrinka's sake." (K): "Shush, you're making me sound like a pansy." (N): "Anyway, keep reading because we have some exciting things coming up!" (K): "Yeah and we're not telling you what they are!" (N): "Naw naw, we know something you don't know :P"

PS: We don't own the Princess Bride, but it is an awesome movie.


	7. Warren, to the Rescue!

(K): "We don't have a lot of time to chat to day, so we'll just get right down to it."

Mondays suck, no matter who you are or where you came from, they just do. And that suckiness is just what Elaine was experiencing at this moment. She hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before so she was tired (remember she wakes up at four). Her classes were uninteresting, her head ached and now she was being called to the office. As she walked down the hall she felt the sneaking suspicion that she was being followed. She took a sudden turn down another hall and broke into a sprint (when we say sprint we mean Olympic track runner sprint). Because of that she made it to the secretary's desk in record time.

"You have a call for me?" Elaine asked.

"You're Elaine O'Donovan?" Elaine responded with a nod. "Here you go."

Elaine took the phone and put it to her ear, "Hello."

"Alright Elaine," Nate's voice said over the phone. "It wasn't my fault."

"Oh, that's never a good way to start a conversation," Elaine said, rubbing her forehead. "What isn't your fault?"

"My teacher had a teacher had a nervous break down," Nate replied, calmly.

"What?" Elaine exclaimed. "How did that happen?"

"Well, she was talking to us about nouns and pro-nouns, and then she got a phone call. She picked it up and started to talk, then she started to talk louder and then she just started yelling. I think she was talking to her boyfriend because she started to call him a two timing son of a -"

"We don't say that word, Nathanial," Elaine said, sighing.

"Could just come and pick me up before they start making me mop the floors?"

"They won't do that," Elaine said, rolling her eyes.

"My principle just threatened to."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Elaine said, hanging up the phone. "Family emergency, I'll be skipping the rest of the day," she informed the secretary, walking into the hall.

Elaine was walking towards the main door when a thought struck her: I'm 25000 ft. in the air, how am I suppose to get to Nate?

As Elaine was thinking of this someone grabbed her arm and turned her around. As soon as a startled Elaine got her bearings she recognized the person as Michael Norse (from Mad Science).

"Can I help you?" Elaine asked as the little red lights started to flash in her head.

"Heya darlin'," he said smiling in a creepy manner. "It's a shame we didn't get partnered in science, I was so hoping we would."

"Yeah, well such is life," Elaine said back away from the boy.

"I'm sure I could get Medulla to look the other way," he said continuing to come nearer to the girl. "Just this once."

"Look" Elaine said, now getting agitated. "I've got places to be, so get lost."

"I don't think you understand what I'm telling you," he said, gripping Elaine's arm more tightly. "Around here what I say goes, so when I say we're gonna be partners, we're gonna be partners. One way or an- Oof!"

At this point Elaine kneed Michael in the stomach and began to run. Michael ran after her, but realized that he wouldn't be able to catch her and so he put his powers to use. With that the boy shot a beam of ice in front of Elaine's running form.

"Oh shiii-" she yelled as she slipped on the damn stuff. She then crashed into a trashcan. "Oi…" she muttered holding her head as Michael walked towards her.

"Now, I believe that I've made myself clear," he said bending down to Elaine's level. "Now let's go talk to Medulla about-"

"About what, Norse?" Warren's voice said from behind the big palooka.

"I'm just having a little conversation with the girl, Peace," Norse said, not turning around. "It's none of your concern so why don't you just get back to…whatever it is that you do."

"Well, Elaine happens my science partner so it is my concern," Warren said, grabbing Michael by the shoulders. "Now if you don't leave her alone I'll be forced to torch you within an inch of your life."

Michael glared down at Elaine and stood up saying, "I'll catch you later."

Elaine stayed on the ground looking at Warren for a few seconds before she pulled herself back together.

"Thanks," Elaine said, trying to regain some control on the situation. "Why aren't you in class?"

"I'm the co-teacher in Super Mechanics," Warren said, picking up Elaine's bags. "Why aren't you in class?"

"I got a phone call from Nate," she said as Warren handed her the bag.

"Is he alright?"

"Yeah, but his teacher had a nervous break down and I need to go pick him up."

"How are you gonna get to him?" Warren asked as they both walked towards the main door.

"I have no idea," Elaine said, hopelessly.

"I'll give you a ride," Warren said pulling out his keys.

"In what?" Elaine asked following Warren out the door.

"My car," Warren said, leading Elaine into a parking lot.

"How?" Elaine said, looking at Warren's black Elite.

"What part of "Co-teacher of Super Mechanics" do you not understand?"

Elaine just shrugged her shoulders and got into the car.

"Where does he go to school?" Warren asked, starting up the car.

"Lincoln Elementary, it's right near my house," she said, buckling up. "Just turn right instead of left on Ross Ave."

"M'k," Warren said, driving towards the bus ramps.

"So, your car can…get us to the ground," Elaine asked, looking nervously over towards the edge.

"Yep," Warren said, a grin growing on his face as they neared the edge.

"Um…Warren why are you smiling like that?" Elaine asked, pulling her buckle tighter.

"Oh, no reason," he said still smiling.

"Warren I swear, if you do something stupid I'll ki- eep!" And with one short squeak (or eep as the case may be) they were flying.

After five painful minutes, Elaine and Warren landed by the school.

"You're never flying me anywhere ever again!" Elaine said, getting out of the car.

"Don't be such a baby," Warren replied holding in laughter. "I didn't even flip."

"Oi," Elaine said as Nate ran up to car.

"Hey Warren!" Nate exclaimed as he entered the car. "Why are you here?"

"Your sister needed a ride," Warren replied, then turning to Elaine, "I'll drop you two off at your house."

"Hey guess what?" Nate said to Warren. "My teacher went crazy!"

"What did you do?" Warren asked the boy.

"Why does everyone think I did it!" Nate exclaimed while Elaine laughed at the small exchange.

Once they got to the house Elaine thanked Warren for the ride and went inside to call their uncle.

"Are you going to come in?" Nate asked Warren.

"No, I have to go back to school," Warren answered.

"Oh," Nate looked disappointed, he then brightened. "But you'll came and work on your project with Elaine?"

"Yeah," Warren said, as Elaine came back out.

"Alright Nate," Elaine said, putting her hands on Nate's shoulders. "We've taken up enough of Warren's time."

"You know what Warren?" Nate said, standing up. "I like you, you're coming with me and Elaine to the air show next weekend, pack accordingly."

"Nate!" Elaine said, swatting the boy on the back of his head.

"What?" Nate said rubbing the back of his head. "He likes the idea, he doesn't get out much," he then turned towards Warren. "I know these things."

With that Nate turned and walked into the house.

"Wow," Warren said watching Nate enter the house.

"Uh-huh," Elaine said, smiling. "So you wanna come or not?"

"I don't have anything going on, why not?"

"See you tomorrow."

"See ya."

With that Warren started his car and drove off.

Elaine shook her head and walked inside.

"Is he coming?" Nate asked, while he poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms.

"Yeah," Elaine said, grabbing out her own bowl. "He didn't have anything to do."

"I knew it," Nate said happily. "I like him. Hey Elaine…is Warren like a big brother?"

Elaine froze and then walked over and hugged Nate.

"Hey, what's with the hugging?" Nate asked.

"I just love you," Elaine said on the verge of tears.

"I love you too, now can I eat my Lucky Charms?"

(K): "Ta-da, that's all for today." (N): "Good night all!" REVIEW!


	8. The Mall and Family Matters

(K): "Hello!" *readers turn away* (N): "No no no! *starts to run after readers* We don't want to hurt you we just want you to read our stuff!" (K): "I'm not sure if there's a different." (N): "Shut up! *tackles readers* Ha, you're not getting away that easy!" (K): "Read and review if you don't want Nori to get you."

Elaine looked up from her book as the door bell rang. It was seven p.m. on a Thursday evening and she wasn't expecting anyone.

"Who's at the door?" Nate asked coming down the steps that ended near the house's entrance.

"One sec," Elaine said, opening the door to revile none other than Layla Williamson. "Layla?"

"Hi!" Layla said, stepping into the house. "The rest of us are going shopping and we cam to pick you up."

"Why?" Elaine said, as Layla picked up a pair of Elaine's sneakers that were sitting by the door. "How did you get here? Where are you going? How did you know where I live?"

"What's going on?" Nate asked, putting on his shoes.

"We're going to the mall," Layla answered for Elaine.

"Cool!" Nate exclaimed. "I'm coming!"

"Ok," Layla said, pulling Elaine out the door towards an old looking, dull yellow mini bus.

"Wait, whose car is that?"

"Hey Elaine," Zack said, sticking his head out the driver seat window. "Hey look, you're bringing the little dude!"

"Oh for the love of all things good and holy," Elaine said, putting her hand over her face.

"Hi," Nate said as he and Elaine climbed into the back of the car.

"Hey," said Ethan, who was sitting in the back along with Will, Magenta was sitting shotgun.

"How did you know where we live?" Elaine asked again.

"Warren told me," Layla said, buckling.

"The turncoat!" Elaine seethed to herself.

The rest of the ride by peacefully and they were soon at the mall were they met up with Warren.

"Hey Warren," was the general greeting except for Nate who ran up to him and gave him a high five and Elaine called him a dirty traitor.

"Alright," Layla said, getting everyone's attention. "Me and Elaine are going to go shop for clothes, the rest of you do what you want till ten, that's when the bus is leaving."

"Aw man," Elaine said, picturing all of the eco-friendly, green, flowery clothes that she would be subjected to. "Come on Nate."

"What? I don't want to go to _girl_ shopping," Nate said, wrinkling up his nose.

"Well, someone has to watch you."

"I'll stay with Warren," he said, trying to get out of _girl_ shopping.

"I could keep an eye on him," Warren said, really having no idea how to keep an eye on a small child.

"I'm not sure," Elaine said, thinking about the type of shops Warren must go into.

"Pleeeeease," Nate asked putting his hands together in prayer.

"Fine," Elaine said, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. She then turned to Warren, "Keep a close eye on him and if you see Speedy Gonzales running past you, smack him up side the head."

"Um, ok," Warren said, looking down to Nate.

With that Elaine was dragged away by Layla, soon after Will and Ethan left to go to the GameStop and Magenta dragged Zack off to Hot Topic leaving Warren and Nate alone (or as alone as you get in a mall). For a moment Nate and Warren just stood there, staring at each other, Nate was the one who finally decided to talk.

"So, what do you do at the mall usually?"

"Uh, I don't usually come with out a reason," Warren said, wondering what an 8 year old would do at the mall.

"Oh, I know where we could go," Nate said pulling Warren towards a hobby shop.

The next hour Nate showed Warren every airplane from World War II, explaining where they were from, who used them and how efficient they were.

"This is a *yawn* B-17," Nate said, this was the fifth time he'd yawned. "The Flying Fortress," he finished.

"You ok?" Warren asked while the little boy rubbed his eyes.

"I'm a little tired," Nate answered.

"Well it's about 8:30," Warren said looking at his watch.

"Bed time," Nate muttered, leaning on Warren.

"Ok sooo… C'mon," Warren said, pulling Nate behind him. "Let's go find your sister."

After about twenty minutes of wandering around Layla's favorite shops Warren and Nate found Elaine drowning in bags and Layla talking to her at 60 mph.

"Hey," Warren said, at this point he was basically holding Nate up.

"Hey," Elaine said back. "Is he ok?"

"Yeah, just tired," Warren said.

"What time is it?"

"'Bout 8:50."

"Oh jeez," Elaine said, brushing some of Nate's hair out of his face. "No wonder he's tired. I need to get him home."

"We can't leave yet," Layla said, throwing in her two bits. "We all have plans to watch Prince of Persia and Zack's the only one with a car."

"I'll get you home," Warren said, picking Nate up.

"Thanks," Elaine said, with a sigh.

The ride home was pretty quiet, with Nate sleeping in the back seat. Once they got to the house Warren carried Nate in while Elaine carried her bags.

"Thanks for the ride," Elaine said, dropping her bag in the hall.

"No problem," Warren said, walking towards the steps. "Where's his room?"

"Third door on the left," Elaine said, kicking her shoes off.

Warren walked up and went into Nate's room, which was filled with model airplanes, toy dinosaurs and cars.

"Everything a little boy should have," Warren muttered, putting Nate down. He then noticed a picture on his dresser, the same picture that he had seen downstairs. In the picture there was a happy looking couple, standing next to them were two boys probably thirteen and fifteen. The older boy was holding a little girl who had curly blond and the younger one was holding a little baby whose brown hair was standing straight up on his head. Warren picked up the picture and examined it more closely. He was pretty sure the baby was Nate and he was almost positive the little girl was Elaine, so where are the rest of these people and who are they?

"Find something interesting?" Elaine asked from behind Warren. It took all of Warren's will power not to jump out of his skin. _"Dang sneaky girl."_

"Who are they?" Warren asked turning around.

"My family," Elaine answered, taking the picture from Warren's hands.

"Where are they?"

"In the picture we're at our home in California," Elaine answered, avoiding actual question.

"That's where you lived?"

"Until I was eight," Elaine said; eyes full of pain.

"What happened?" Warren asked quietly, knowing this was probably not the best subject.

"There was an earthquake," she answered quietly as Warren asked. "They all died."

` "Oh, jeez," Warren said, feeling like the biggest jackass on planet earth. "I'm sorry."

Elaine just shrugged, "Yeah, well, life's a bitch and then you die."

At this point a normal girl would be in tears, Warren knew that. He was getting ready for the water works when he realized that Elaine wasn't crying and she didn't look like she was gonna start. Sure, she looked like she was in a hell of a lot of pain, but she wasn't gonna cry, not in front of him. Not in front of anyone, probably. She was too strong for that.

"Um…" Warren was unsure as to what he was to do next. Tell her everything was going to be ok (even though that was obviously a lie), rub her back like he did for his mother whenever she cried about his father. Maybe walk out awkwardly and never bring the subject up again? Or (the scariest of all the options) give Elaine a (duh duh duh) hug. Now of course you know that hugging is _not_ Warren's style, but this was an emergency and, truth be told, he kinda wanted to give Elaine a hug. _"Oh man,"_ Warren thought to himself. _"I'm going soft." Finally _Warren decided the best thing he could do was give Elaine a sort of half hug and squeeze her shoulder.

"Thanks," Elaine said, knowing that this simple gesture was a big sort of step for him.

"No prob," Warren said, brushing it off. "So, see you tomorrow?"

"See you then," Elaine said, walking Warren to the door.

And with that Warren left as if nothing happened, like he always gave her hugs (half hugs, whatever), but they both knew that they had learned something important about the other. Warren learned that Elaine was probably one of the strongest people he'd ever meet. Elaine learned that Warren might just care for her the littlest bit and, though she would never admit it to anyone, she was thrilled by this prospect.

(N): "We're sooooooooooo sorry that we've taken so long!" (K): "Things have been going crazy here and we've just not had a lot of time." (N): "Anyways, please read and review!"


	9. Blue Heart

(N): "Sorry it's taken us so long, we've been busy." (K): "Thanks for waiting, here it is!"

* * *

Friday was just your average day, go to school, put books in locker, say hi to Warren, avoid Layla, get found by Layla, rinse and repeat. Now she and Warren were sitting in her living room trying to construct a proto type of their anthrax doomsday device, Saturday morning fun, no?

"Hey, pass me the powdered sugar, would ya?" Elaine asked (they were using powdered sugar instead of real anthrax for medical reasons).

"Uh huh," Warren said through the pair of pliers that he was holding in his mouth.

"Thanks," Elaine taking the bag of sweet powder from his hands. "How's the distribution modulator coming along?"

"Ok," Warren said, now screwing on some sort of panel. "How's it looking?"

"Like something out of a bad syfy movie," Elaine said, smiling. "Speaking of which, when are you meeting Spock?"

"Shut up," Warren said, turning to the doomsday device smiling. "And the Syfy convention isn't for another week."

Elaine just laughed and got back to work. After about five minutes they were ready for a test run.

"Alright," Warren muttered, turning the machine on as Elaine poured in the powdered sugar.

The machine began to hum then it began to sputter and the _*bang*_ Elaine and Warren were suddenly covered in white powder.

Warren coughed, "Too *cough cough* sweet!"

"Well you know what president Truman always said," Elaine said, wiping her face off.

"What?"

"When at first you don't succeed, blow shit up."

"I don't think blowing up our science project is going to help anything."

"I know, but it sounds so satisfying, doesn't it?"

Warren was about to comment when Nate walked in to the room.

"Hey," He said, completely ignoring the powdered sugar that was all over the room. "Guess what I know."

"What?" Elaine asked, passing Warren the towel.

"You're suppose to go out on Friday nights," Nate answered, looking proud for knowing something that neither Warren or Elaine seemed to know.

"Um…" Elaine looked to Warren and then back to Nate. "We would Nate, but I don't have a life."

"And I actively avoid life," Warren threw in.

"Hm," Nate pondered that for a moment. "Well, that's just depressing. You're going out tonight."

"But, we've got to work on science project," Elaine pointed out.

"You just said you wanted to blow it up," Nate pointed out.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"Yep," he said, smiling. "Bring money for ice cream."

"Where are we going?" Warren asked, while he was dragged by the boy toward the door.

"To the park," Nate said, putting on his shoes.

"Wait," Elaine said, "Is this 'you should be out having fun' talk a ploy to get us to take you to the park, and get ice cream?"

"Uncle wouldn't take me and you two need to get out more often!"

"Typical."

"You like ice cream, no complaining." Nate retorted.

Warren having now spent a bit (some would say a lot and be promptly torched) of time with Elaine's family, knew how this argument would end. So he grabbed his keys and let them bicker a few more minuets. The "fight" didn't last to much longer and within five minuets the three of them were headed to the park.

Elaine had gone to get the demanded ice cream. Warren sat on a bench near the area Nate was playing and pulled a book out of his backpack. He was alternately reading a paragraph and glancing up at Nate. After about five minuets of this routine Warren looked up and didn't see Nate. A strong urge to panic started to well up in the pit of his stomach, taking a deep breath he forced the feeling back and slowly looked over the entire play ground. Slide? No. Swings? Nope. The carousel? Still nothing. The panic started to resurface. The tree that old people fed birds under? Low and behold there stood Nate. Warren sighed with relief, "_well that was terrifying.__**"**_

Nate was currently impressing a little girl who was also under the tree with different illusions, fairies, rainbows all that stuff. Warren watched with much amusement until the little girl left and Nate returned to the bench. Once Nate sat at the bench he noticed that Warren was smirking at him.

"What?" He asked giving Warren a look.

"Sooo," Warren said smiling big. "Who's the girl?"

"I know her from school," Nate answered, looking a little embarrassed.

"Oh? A friend? A _girl_friend?" At this point Warren was really enjoying himself, _"So this is the satisfaction big brothers feel,"_ he thought.

"You're one to talk," Nate said.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Well, Elaine's your girlfriend," Nate replied, as if it was obvious.

"Um, Nate," Warren said, awkwardly. "Elaine's not my girlfriend, we're just friends."

Nate gave him a disbelieving look, "If you say so."

"Hey guys," Elaine said as she approached with the ice cream. "Here we go: Chocolate for Nate, Rocky-Road for Warren and Coffee for me."

"Yay!" Nate said, clapping his hands.

"Thanks," Warren said accepting his cone.

"So," Elaine said, sitting down. "What you guys talk about while I was gone?"

"Nothing," Nate and Warren said simultaneously, Nate not wanting Elaine to know about Eliza (his _friend_ from school) and Warren not wanting to go through any sort of awkward discussion.

"Ok," Elaine said, giving them a look.

"I'm going to play in the jungle gym," Nate said, running off with his ice cream cone.

"Be careful," Elaine said, watching him run. "That kid can make me so nervous sometimes."

"I know what you mean," Warren said, taking a bit out of his cone. "While you were gone I looked up from my book couldn't see him for a few seconds and I practically jumped out of my skin."

Elaine laughed for a second at the thought of Warren freaking out over her little brother.

Elaine and Warren started chatting about different things studiously avoiding all mentions of the science project or Sky high. As it turned out they had a lot in common, favorite type of music, Rock. Favorite food, there wasn't any thing they wouldn't try once and they both hated crowds, lines, preppy snobs and little yappy dogs. Still laughing at each others jokes and keeping an eye on Nate neither one of the super powered teens saw the person lurking a few meters behind them until it walked up and spoke to them.

"Well, well, well…" Michael Norse said, walking towards them. "Science partners turned lovers, how sweet."

"I thought I made it clear that you were to leave us alone," Warren said in his most threatening tone.

"Yeah, like that would stop me," he laughed, now in front of Elaine.

"Stay away from her!" Nate yelled, jumping in front of Elaine.

"And a kid," Norse laughed even harder at that. "You two work fast."

"Go away, Michael," Elaine said, feeling a little awkward because the fight was really over her.

"You heard the lady," Warren said pushing Norse away. "Go."

Not one to take a punch (push) sitting down, Michael threw a punch and caught Warren in the mouth. At this Warren of course flamed up and got ready to grill Norse, but before he could police sirens were being sounded. Michael, of course, ran off before any trouble could develop.

"Anyone see me flame up?" Warren asked, while Elaine hugged Nate.

"I don't think so," Elaine said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Then who called the police?" Warren asked.

"Elaine told me to make fake ones," Nate answered. "So that big jerk would go."

"Good job, mini man," Warren said, rubbing the top of Nate's head, messing up his hair.

"Hey Warren, your lip's bleeding," Nate said, trying (failing) to fix his hair after Warren removed his hand.

"I'm sure your sister is willing to fix it for me," Warren said, smiling in spite of himself.

"Oh? And what makes you so sure?" Elaine asked in jest.

"I was injured in your defense," Warren said, making Elaine laughed. "I deserve a Purple Heart for my valiant efforts that were above and beyond the call of duty!"

"Ha, you make it sound like you got shot," Elaine said as they all walked to the car.

"Who knows what would have happened if that guy had a gun on him!"

"I think you two are just being silly," Nate said, shaking his head at them.

Once the three of them made it back to the house Elaine cleaned Warren's lip and Nate drew him a picture of a blue heart, "I don't have any purple crayons," he explained.

"Alright Nate," Elaine said. "Time for bed, say goodnight to Warren."

"I don't wanna," Nate said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Go on up to bed," Warren said, putting his Blue heart into his backpack. "I'll see you in the morning for the air show, remember?"

"Ok," Nate said, walking up the steps. "Night Warren, night Elaine."

"Night bud," Warren said walking to the door. "See you guys tomorrow."

"Bye," Elaine said. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Warren got into his car and drove home thinking about everything, deciding that Elaine and Nate were probably crazy but that was one of the best things about them. And once he got home, hung his Blue Heart on the fridge and sat down in his room he decided it was one of the things that he loved most about Elaine.

"_Wait, love? Well crap, that's gonna be a problem."_

Yes finally, a emotional breakthrough! Now we just need Elaine to admit it and we'll have a romance story! Now we realize we haven't been real consistent with our updates but we're working hard and we would really like some new reviews. They can be nice, they can be mean, they can have nothing to do with this story, heck, you want to tell us what you ate for dinner on Tuesday go right ahead, just review.

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.


	10. AirShows and Closets

(N): "yeah, we know we're taking forever." (K): "Here it is."

* * *

*beep beep* Warren looked out the window in the front room of his home and saw Elaine, Nate and their uncle Bruce. Warren grabbed his sunglasses and backpack and walked out to the minivan.

"Hey," Nate called through the window in the backseat.

"Hey," Warren said back, then to Elaine: "I hope what I'm wearing is going to be ok."

"You're fine," Elaine said. "I'm not wearing any pants."

Warren froze, he had two options: 1. Go strait back to his house, or 2. Go strait over to that car to see if she was serious. Mean while Elaine was having a good laugh at the expression on poor Warren's face.

"Relax," she said through chuckles. "I'm wearing a skirt."

"You so weird," Warren grumbled, climbing into the back seat.

"All right kids," Bruce said, rolling his eyes. "Let's get going."

The drive to the air strip was filled mostly with Nate telling Warren (who had never been to an air show before) what would happen and what planes there would be. Nate was actually fairly well informed when it came to old planes, and by the time the little guy was done telling him about it he had caught some of Nate's enthusiasm. Not anywhere near as bouncy as Nate but, sufficiently excited for a stoic pyrokinetic like himself.

"Hey Elaine! Tell Warren what we're having for lunch!" Nate called from the back row, excited. But before Elaine could get a word in Nate shouted out the menu. "Roast beef sandwiches with Swiss cheese and mayo!"

"It's his favorite," Elaine said, explaining Nate's enthusiasm.

"Well," Warren said, turning to Nate. "That just happens to be my favorite, too."

As soon as Uncle Bruce parked the car the four of them trooped out to the to the field next to the air strip where all the WWII re-enactors were set up. Warren was amazed by the amount of WWII buffs within a 60 mile radius of Maxville. He looked over at Elaine who was smiling tolerantly at Nate as he shot off questions at a polished army medic. She caught his stare, and then he realized he did not have any thing to say. Fortunately he was saved from looking like an idiot or a stalker.

"I was so disappointed in Sky highs history class when I got here," She said smiling. "Nothing but heroes and villains. Nothing about the every day people that work hard and make a difference in ordinary life."

"Yeah, I hear that. And you'd think that it would be slightly interesting given the subject matter…"

"But true to text book rules its boring as watching paint dry." She finished.

" Hey Elaine aren't those guys from your school?" Nate asked pointing towards an English communication tent where stood Will, Layla, Ethan, Zack, and even Magenta.

"What in the world are they doing here?" Warren said to himself not realizing what would happen next. Elaine knew and reached out to stop him but it was to late.

"Let's find out. HEY BIG DUDE!" Nate shouted at the top of his lungs while simultaneously avoiding his sisters grasp. (An impressive feat by any ones standards.)

Zack or 'big dude' immediately turned towards the voice and answered.

"HEY LITTLE DUDE!"

Thusly the whole sky high dream team (and a lot of random people) brought their attention away from the historic exhibits, and on to the far more interesting sight of Warren Peace with a girl on… a date? This had to be investigated.

Layla of course was the first to zero in on the target (dive dive dive!).

"Hi guys!" Layla said, enthusiastically (surprise surprise). "What'cha doing here? Together and alone? And not telling anyone?"

"What am I, chop liver?" Nate asked, crossing his arms.

"I seconded that," Bruce said, knowing that the whole thing was a joke.

"We're not doing anything," Elaine said, immediately on the defensive.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Warren said, on the offensive.

"Aw team work, isn't that sweet?" Magenta said sarcastically.

"I didn't know you two were hanging out so much," Layla said, enjoying the whole situation immensely.

"We're science partners," Elaine said, it being her only excuse.

"Um, this is a WWII air show," Will pointed out. "It has nothing to do with M.S. (Mad Science)."

"As far as you know," Elaine said.

"Riiiiight," Layla said smugly. "Either way, we're here because Zack and Ethan are actually very interested in old planes, so we all went."

"Hey, we're gonna go set up for lunch," Uncle Bruce said. "Will you all be eating with us?"

"Sure," Ethan said. "Me and Zack will help you."

"Yeah," Zack said, picking up a cooler. "Let's go little dude."

"You guys meet us at the picnic tables in twenty minutes," Bruce said to the others.

"So how's you project coming along?" Will asked, trying to make small talk.

"Dandy," Warren said. He was grumpy because he didn't want anyone to interrupt his time with Elaine and her family, not that he would admit that, of course.

-flash over to plotting Layla and Magenta-

"Ok," Layla whispered to Magenta. "I think that that's the best way to do it."

"This is going to be hysterical," Magenta cackled back (and yes, when we say cackle, we mean cackle).

Slowly the two conspirators closed in on their intended victims…

"Hey Warren, Elaine, lets all go look at the Wright Bros. gallery!" Layla said a little to enthusiastically.

"Well…ok I suppose we could ..hey!" Warren shouted as Layla promptly grabbed his arm and dragged him into the building that the exhibit was located in. Magenta followed with Elaine in tow. Will followed all four looking (as per usual) very confused.

"Isn't this just great?" Layla gushed as they pulled the science partners through the rinky dink excuse for a "gallery."

"Thrilling." Magenta replied.

"What are you talking about," Elaine said. "It's just a little room filled with a bunch of junk that you could get just as easily from a fourth grade history book ."

A look passed between the two schemers, 'the targets are getting suspicious! Must work fast!' so that is precisely what they did.

"You're right," Layla said, guiding them towards another room. "Let's look at the period clothing exhibit. Hey Will, would you mind running to tell Zack and Ethan that we'll be with them soon?"

"Sure," Will said, not sensing the evil plot that was coming.

"Come on, this way," Magenta said, pulling Warren and Elaine along.

As they all approached the door to the exhibit Elaine was thinking two things: 1. Why did Layla send her "precious" boyfriend away instead of Warren or her? 2. I didn't even know this place had a period clothing exhibit.

They didn't. As soon as the door opened Layla and Magenta pushed the science partners into a cleaning closet and locked the door.

"Hey!" Elaine said, turning to bang on the door. "You guys, this isn't funny!"

"We'll be back soon," Layla said in a muffled voice.

"Layla!" Warren roared, but the pair was already gone.

The two tried pounding on the door, and shouting but no one came.

"I'm gonna kill her," Elaine said, trying to find more space in the cramped quarters.

"You'll have to wait in line!" Warren raged or rather tried to, in the confined space that brought him uncomfortably close to Elaine.

Both of the Heroes In Training were thankful for the dark that hide the fact that each were blushing from each other.

"Well this is just great," Elaine said, pounding her head into the wall. "What are we suppose do?"

"Look," Warren said, trying to remain calm. "We're two Heroes in training, I'm sure we can get out of a locked closet, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Elaine looked at the door. "One problem, no one's suppose to know that we're heroes and if we come busting out of here in grand fashion it'll kinda make people suspicious."

"Well can you pick it?"

Elaine jiggled the door handle and then pushed against the door.

"Nope, they barricaded it from the outside," Elaine knocked on the door again.

"Well do you know how to kick a door down?" Warren asked, hoping that she had watched a Chuck Norris movie the night before.

"I could if it was wood, but it's metal. Do you think you could melt it?"

"Yeah, cause that won't draw attention," Warren replied rolling his eyes.

"Oh yes, we're so funny," Elaine said, with a huff. "So we're stuck?"

"I guess," Warren said, placing his head in his hands.

Elaine looked around the room (closet). It was about 4 ft. by 3 ft. and filled the brim with crap. Crap…useful crap?

"Warren, help me move some of this," Elaine said, throwing aside an empty bucket.

"What are we looking for?"

"Anything Macgyver would use," Elaine said, looking through a rack of mops and brooms.

"Who's Macgyver?"

"You don't know who Macgyver is? As soon as we get out of here you are being educated."

"Well, let's get out of here first."

"No duh."

The two of them worked for a solid twenty minutes (while trying to avoid physical contact) until they managed to construct a sort of lever system that would either break the door or the wall.

"Either way we are out of here." Elaine said.

They were just about to start cranking when…

Elaine's cell phone began to ring.

The two froze and stared at each other in the dark. Slowly Elaine picked up the evil little life saving device and answered it.

"Hello…,"

"Are the two of you coming to lunch or what?" Uncle Bruce asked from the other end of the line.

"Uncle Bruce kill Layla, right now just kill her!" Elaine all but shouted in to the phone.

"What are you going on about Layla said that you and Warren were looking at an exhibit and would be along shortly than the whole lot of them went to the food stands. Where are you?"

"Locked in a closet with Warren."

Silence…

"Do I have to have a talk with either of you?"

"LAYLA LOCKED US IN THE CLOSET IT WAS NOT LIKE THAT!"

"Oh, well ok then. Tell me where you are and I'll come let you out."

Elaine told him and hung up never in her entire life had she felt so foolish. That she could have called her Uncle twenty minuets ago was just the icing on the cake.

"Un-Friggin -Believable! I'm out witted by the Hippie locked in a closet with a guy and just happened to forget that I have a cell, Yeeeaahh if this ever gets out at school …" Elaine stopped and looked at Warren. He had sunk to the floor and was shaking all over Elaine was concerned for a moment untill a loud laugh escaped him.

"This is not funny Warren!" Elaine shouted.

Warren tried to respond but could not catch sufficient breath to do so with so he simply dissolved in to laughter again. Elaine tried to fight the smile coming to her face but his laugh was so rare a sound she felt compelled to join in.

"You ha- have to admit that it is sort of funny." Warren chuckled.

"Well, maybe but not out loud." She replied

When Nate and Bruce found them they were sitting side by side on the floor happily plotting Layla's death.

That night, after they had dropped Warren off at his home, Elaine thought over the day. They had a lot more fun after the closet incident. Usually that type of thing would have spoiled the rest of her day but some how Warren made her laugh at it and bare the teasing (mostly). Elaine remembered briefly before turning out her light the way Warren smiled at her as he walked towards his house and the way her heart turned over at the sight.

"Oh no, no way not with Warren, not with anybody."

She silently blessed Nate and Bruce and fell asleep.

- Else where -

"So Mr. Peace is keeping Miss. O'Donovan company. Agent Manson I would like you to keep an eye on the O'Donovan family and it might be beneficial to question Mr. Peace, his mother as well if you believe the situation warrants it."

"Yes sir." The agent disappeared through the office doors leaving the old man behind his desk with his plans, paper work, and thoughts. He smiled to him self.

"Soon," he whispered.

"Very soon."

* * *

(N): "buh buh buh buuuuuh!" (K): "Good right? Creepy I'm so proud of me!" REVIEW!


	11. Kodak Moments

(N): "Heya, long time no see." (K): "Nori we're never seen any of them, they live in our computer." (N): "Lalalalalalala, I can't hear you, LALALalLAALALLA!" (K): *shakes head* and the court still won't institutionalize her…"

REVIEW!

* * *

*ding*

Elaine was sitting at the kitchen table by herself (Nate and Bruce were at a baseball game) when the door bell rang. When she opened it Warren was standing there, with a sadistic smile on his face.

"Hey Warren," Elaine said, in a slightly worried voice. "What'cha doing here? We aren't studying today."

"I know, we're going to somewhere," he said, sadistic smile getting bigger.

"Where?" Elaine said as Warren walked into her house, picking up her sneakers and red hoody as he walked past them.

"The woods where I'll murder you and hide your body," he answered a little too seriously.

"Okay," Elaine said slowly. "For real, where are we going?"

"You're coming with me to the Syfy convention," Warren said, smile bigger than ever.

"Can't you just murder me in the woods?" Elaine pleaded.

"Nope," Warren answered, now looking through Elaine's messenger bag.

"It's was never in our bet that I'd come along," Elaine pointed out.

Warren sighed and looked at Elaine in mock seriousness. "Look Elaine, we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way, your choice."

"Please," Elaine said, rolling her eyes. "You've got nothing on me."

"Oh really? Nate and his alligator disagree."

Elaine's face froze.

"He wouldn't side with you."

Warren just smiled.

Two minutes later Warren was opening the passenger door of his car for Elaine.

"You're a jackass."

Warren laughed and walked around the car to his door.

* * *

As soon as Elaine walked in to the convention hall she knew she was in for it. Geeks were everywhere you turned, there was no escaping!

"Oh dear lord," Elaine said, putting her head in hands.

"My lady," said a lanky boy in an elf costume, causing Elaine to take a step towards Warren who was trying to decide if he wanted to laugh or char the nerd.

"Warren, I want OUT of this place," Elaine said through gritted teeth.

"As soon as we take my picture," Warren said, smiling. "I believe the Star Trek exhibited is that way."

"How do you know?"

"I just saw a Klingon."

"Oh, I guess you're right then."

* * *

The line to meet Spock was insanely long; Warren soon found out that this was because it wasn't just some Spock look-a-like, the actual actor that played the Vulcan, Lenard Nemoy.

Elaine and Warren looked at the line and then to each other.

"We don't have to do this you know," Elaine said, hoping to get out of the whole thing. "I'm willing to drop it."

"Are you crazy? This is gonna be my Christmas card!"

"You do that and I'll kill you," Elaine said, raising her fists.

"Easy Cadet," said a trekkie from behind them. "No need for violence, this is a peaceful voyage."

Elaine wasn't sure how to respond to that so she shut her mouth and moved forward in the line.

After about five minutes of waiting in line one of the trekkies started a (no lie) sing-along, in Klingon!

"I'm going to kill myself," Elaine said, pounding her head into Warren's shoulder.

"Suicide is the way of the coward," said a Klingon to her right.

Warren was at this point struggling to contain his laughter, Nate and Bruce had been right, this was fantastic.

After twenty minutes of Klingon folk songs the trekkies finally stopped. Much to Elaine's relief the line was coming to an end, they were fifth in line now.

"Ready to meet the master of all logic?" Warren asked as the line moved up.

"Dying of anticipation," Elaine said dryly.

"Show some respect for your commanding officer!" The trekkie from before exclaimed, noticing her sarcasm.

Elaine was now trying to pull out her hair while Warren was biting his tongue to keep himself from laughing.

Finally the two teenagers stepped on to the platform where the Syfy star stood in his full dress uniform.

"Good afternoon," the old man said.

"Hey," Elaine said as politely as possible, after all, it wasn't his fault she was here.

"What can I do for you?" Lenard asked.

Now Warren thought that this was a stupid question, but he answered anyways.

"Just a picture, thanks," he said, handing his camera to one of the security guards that volunteered to picture duty.

The camera man/security guard stepped back to take the picture.

"Say facebook," the man said, smirking, cause Elaine to growl while Warren, who could no longer hold it in, burst out laughing. All in all it was a good picture of the two of them, kind of like the ones people get inside photo booths, but better, because it wasn't posed or planned, just random and wonderful. Plus Lenard Nemoy was in it and that always helps.

"Have a good day," Lenard said as the two walked away.

"You're not actually going to put that on facebook are you?" Elaine asked as they retrieved the camera.

"I wasn't," Warren said back smiling.

"I hate you," Elaine said glaring.

"I know and I'm loving it."

"Jackass."

"Name calling is mean."

"I'm a mean person."

"Fair enough," Warren said shrugging. "Would you like some Chinese food, Mean Person?"

"Anything to get out of here," Elaine answered putting on her red hoody.

"AH! RED SHIRT!" suddenly every trekkie in there path jumped out of there way.

"There people are so weird!" Elaine shouted as she and Warren left the building.

* * *

Dinner was normal; Warren got dumplings while Elaine got Sesame chicken. Elaine ate both fortune cookies.

"Which fortune do you want?" She asked, shoving the last of the second cookie into her mouth.

"What are they?"

"Um…'Life will bring you many challenges, but if you face them head on, you will emerge victorious' or 'Tomorrow a pot shall fall from a ledge, wear a helmet.'"

"You're lying," Warren said rolling his eyes.

"Am not," Elaine said, handing him the fortune.

"I'll be damned," Warren muttered. "You can have the pot one."

"Nope, you touched it."

"You ate the cookie."

"That means nothing in the realm of Elaineland."

"You are so strange."

"Your Face."

Warren had spent enough time with Elaine to know that "Your Face" was the end of the argument.

"Fine, do you have a helmet I could borrow?"

* * *

Elaine was greeted by Nate the second she waked through the door.

"Where's Warren?"

"Nice to see you too," Elaine replied, rolling her eyes. "He had to go help out at his uncle's garage."

"Oh, did you see Sock?"

"_Spock_," Elaine corrected. "You little traitor."

At this Nate just smiled.

"That's going to be the best Christmas card ever."

"You're an awful little brother."

"Your Face."

And the argument was over.

We know we've taken forever to up date but our computer was down. She back up now so we'll write as much as we can! Send Twili (that's our computers name) a get well review!

Bravo Yankee Echo.


	12. FHPAP and Car Chases

(N): *Dancing* (K): "Why in heaven's name are you doing the chicken dance?" (N): "Chicken dance? I always thought that this was a duck dance, it looks more like a duck dance." (K): "It's the chicken dance, everyone knows that." (N): *Start bobbing head and moving body in chicken like manner* "No, this is the NEW chicken dance, Chicken Dance 2.0!" (K): "Would you stop dancing and just type the story for these poor people that want to read it?" (N): "Fine, but before any of you read it you have to do the Chicken Dance 2.0!" (K): "Or they could just review it." (N): "Yeah, or that."

* * *

Warren sighed as he walked out of his uncle's garage; he had been working for what felt like forever. As he walked towards his car he started to get this anxious kinda twitchy feeling that he detested but recognized immediately. He was being watched, and not in a good way. Suppressing the urge to look behind him or run, Warren walked quietly to his car. As he drove down the road he noticed a non-descript black sedan following him. He stopped at a red light, and glanced in the rear view mirror. Still there. He drove aimlessly for three more blocks. And again still there. Warren knew that he was probably being paranoid but this didn't sit right with him at all. Which is why he waited till the way was clear and then slammed on the gas before the light turned green, the sedan went right with him.

"_Okay then, we'll do this your way."_

Warren made an illegal u-turn and started back from the way he came as quickly as possible. He considered taking the chance of flying away but decided that there was bound to be a witness. Warren pulled the wheel hard to the right, taking a tight corner faster than he should have. He heard his tires screech and just a few seconds later his shadow spun out of control and hit a light post. Warren didn't bother celebrating just yet as his paranoid thought possesses took full control, the downed shadow might have a back up.

"So I've gotta find a place to lay low for a bit…" Warren spotted an abandoned ally way, quickly turned in and killed the lights and engine. He double checked the locks on the doors, and settled in to wait. After about thirty minuets Warren decided it was safe to go home. But the night's events made him wary enough to go through the back roads. As he parked the car outside of his house he saw someone on his front porch. He swore under his breath, though Warren wasn't incredibly surprised he was now ticked off. He was tempted to simply keep driving, but that would mean leaving his Mom alone with them and that was not an option. He got out of the car and approached the figure on the porch.

"I could give you several tickets." The man said.

"Or you could tell me what you are doing at my house," Warren growled.

The man gave Warren a patronizing smile and took out a small note book.

"Warren you have recently been spending a lot of time with a Miss Elaine O'Donovan is that correct?"

"Yeah, and Queen Victoria too, if your looking to set up a super social, go talk to her and get off my case. I can hang out with who ever I want to, now get lost."

"As soon as my partner is done talking to your Mother I'll be happy to vacate the premise."

Warren was quickly losing what little patience he had left, he pushed passed the man in the door way one hand flaming for emphasis and stormed in to the kitchen. He found another man in there talking to his Mom.

"Your done here, have a nice night." He barked, death glare firmly in place. Any one who thought Warren was intimidating at school would have died of fright on the spot.

Goon number two had an identical smirk. "Same to you Warren." He replied and walked out.

Warren hated it when they called him by his name, it felt weird. In a few moments they heard car doors shut, an engine start, and finally the car pulled away. Taking a deep breath he turned to his Mother.

"Well dear," Elizabeth Peace began, "you certainly keep life interesting."

"What? But I didn't do any thing! Mom I swear I…" Warren trailed off when he realized that his Mom was smiling.

"Oh relax I was just teasing." She said.

"So not funny." Warren replied collapsing in to a chair. Beth giggled at him.

"Ok, now tell me more about this Elaine, and I mean more than 'She's my science partner.'." She looked at Warren expectantly, and in drastic contrast to the terrifying figure he had been less than five minuets ago Warren looked positively defeated.

"Why?"

"Because the 'suit brigade' knows more about her than me and I feel out of the loop." She said, while doing the puppy dog face.

"She's my friend too." He said slowly and waited for the explosion, he didn't have to wait long.

"Wonder of wonders! Five friends last year and a new one this year to! Oh, honey I'm so excited for you and I want to meet her, what does she look like? Is she pretty? What does she like to eat? Invite her to dinner."

"Mom!" Warren practically shouted "Focus, tell me what the agent that was in hear wanted and why he mention Elaine."

"No worries honey, just the same heavy handed routine. " She replied distain creeping in to her voice for the first time that night. Elizabeth 'Beth' Peace was a naturally cheerful person and it was not easy to shake her sunny attitude but after several long years of being harassed by F.H.P.A.P. (A/N: you didn't forget these guys did you?) Her happy-go-lucky disposition was officially soured, or at least where they were concerned.

"Well I guess I'll just go to bed now if there is nothing wrong…" Inching towards the door.

"Oh no you don't, come back here and tell me all about her."

Warren made a noise in the back of his throat that some would interpret as a tortured groan.

"Mom, she's just a friend," he said sitting back down.

"So tell me about your friend."

"What do you want to know?" Warren asked, giving up.

"Well first of all I'm sure she has something to do with the fact that my fridge has hearts taped to it."

"First of all it's One heart, _one._ Second of all, it's not from her, her younger brother decided to make me a Purple Heart but he didn't have any purple crayons so that's why it's blue."

"Why did he do that?"

"Elaine has been having some trouble with a guy and one evening he was being particularly…" Warren had to pause a moment here to find a word that both suit Norse's behavior but wouldn't scare or insult his mother.

"Rude?" Beth supplied helpfully.

"Yeah that's it rude."

"You fought with him didn't you, is that what that fat lip was from?"

"Yes Mom."

"So you hang out with her and her little brother. And have you met her parents yet? Or are they as much in the dark as I am?"

"I've met their Uncle who they live with, their parents are dead."

"Oh! Poor things, that does it! You are inviting them to dinner."

"But Mom…"

"And that's that."

And that is that is how Beth signaled the end of conversations with Warren. He knew she now considered the matter closed and Elaine as good as invited. He wondered how long he could stall before the inevitable happened.

"Now go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow night." Beth worked as an E.R. nurse on the day shift. She got home (barring catastrophes, mayhem, and casualties.) about two hours after Warren got home from school. (A/N Hence her lack of presence till now.)

"Ok I've got some home work first though."

"That's fine, good night honey. Remember day after tomorrow we are visiting your Dad."

Warren slowly walked up the steps. It wasn't a surprise really, ever since the courts had started to allow Timothy "Baron Battle" Peace visitors, his mom had insisted on these once a month visits. Warren was still conflicted on the subject of his father; on the one hand he had fleeced the public killed two security guards and given Warren the start of his "bad" reputation. On the other hand Warren could not dredge up one bad memory of the man to save his soul. (He had been three when his father was caught.) The trials were dim and abstractly frightening snippets of memory. The few memories of his father from before than were all of him smiling, and laughing and telling funny stories. Admittedly these memories were hazy as well, but they were there.

Warren heroically tried to do his home work for about ten minuets before giving up and throwing himself in bed. He felt a killer headache coming on. Warren a natural worrier as he lay as still under the covers as possible the thoughts began to raced through his brain. Why was F.H.P.A.P. interested in his being around Elaine? What could he possibly say to his to his father Tuesday that he hadn't said last visit? How big a disaster would it be if or rather 'when' his Mother got her way and the O'Donovan's did come to dinner?

He might have been like that all night not for…

RING RING RING, Warren answered his cell.

"Hello?"

"Hey Warren its Nate I stole my sister's phone so I got to be fast."

"Nate? Why did you steal Elaine's phone?"

"Because I don't know your number."

"Why didn't you just ask her for it?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Warren could barely hold back a loud laugh. Nate sounded so genuinely confused by the idea of asking for his number, but he knew that he was doing this mostly to play with Elaine.

"What's up? Everything ok?"

"Just to say 'good night and see you tomorrow'." In the back round Warren could hear Elaine ranting about thieving brothers and useless uncles. "I hope."

"Thanks Mini-man, you to."

Warren chuckled quietly to him self and less than ten minuets later he was asleep.

* * *

Yay updating! WE HAD A CAR CHASE! How awesome is that? Now, not to sound ungrateful, but for some reason we've only got 30-odd reviews. Now this wouldn't be a big deal if only 30-odd people were reading this story but this story has had over 3,000 hits! That means that only 3 in every 100 of you are reviewing. Well, that's all we had to say, love you guys! (ps: all of you that are a part of that 3 out of 100, we love you best!)

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.


	13. Ma and Pop

(K): "No time for talk, lots to write!"

* * *

Thursday morning Warren groaned and rolled over, why did school have to be in the morning? He forced himself up and then realizing how cold it was promptly lay back down. Warren is not a morning person.

"Warren, time to get up!" Unfortunately his mother was. All too soon she stood in the entrance to his domain.

"No, too cold for school."

"Are you starting this already, its only mid-September!" Beth cried extreme heat didn't bother Warren and generally he would just adjust his internal temperature to keep himself warm in cold weather however, in the colder months he woke up far less inclined to get out of the comfort of his bed.

"Besides," She continued. "There is no school to day remember? Visiting hours are between ten and three. Get a move on, we have to get on the road, then through security, and I want to talk to the warden today about us being able to see him at the same time."

"Fine," he grumbled, pulling himself out of bed.

After Warren got dressed he walked out of his room, grabbing a book and his ipod from his nightstand as he walked down the stairs. (Waiting to see your father in a maximum security super prison can get boring)

As Warren ate breakfast the phone began to ring. By royal decree or rather because Beth said so, Warren was not allowed to answer the phone in the morning.

"Hearing your son curse out a man for getting the wrong number at seven A.M. is an experience I don't want to repeat, thank you very much."

Warrens lack of patience on a frosty school morning four years ago was about to come back and bit him in the butt. Beth picked up the phone.

"Hey, Warren?" The stressed out and irritated voice on the other end of the line didn't pause for confirmation.

"I know your not coming to school and you forgot to tell me if you had changed the bolts on the release mechanism, and I have to turn in the official blue prints to-"

"You must be Elaine!"

"And you aren't Warren." Suddenly Elaine embarrassed by the rude tone that she had been using.

Beth smirked and ignored Warren's panicked expression.

"No, I'm Beth, his mother."

"Oh, um hi."

"Mom…"

"In a minuet honey, hey you didn't change the little round things on your what-cha-ma-call-it did you?…. He is shaking his head no at me so I guess not but he could just want me off the phone."

"Well thank you I'll just let y-"

"I know its last minuet dear but would your family like to come over to dinner to night?" Beth asked as Warren waved his hands and shook his head and any other sign to convey his extreme displeasure."

"Umm…" there was a murmur on the other end of the phone as Elaine asked Bruce. "Ok, my uncle just said yes."

"Excellent come by around five."

"Oh um ok bye." Beth hung up and turned to Warren (Who looked like he was about to explode) then turned away to butter his toast.

"Well thank goodness she called. I thought I might have to wait until you got up the nerve to ask her.

There was a loud thump behind her. Beth smirked to herself; she didn't bother turning to look at her son who just slammed his head into the table. She than gathered her toast and tea and joined her still prostrated son. Looking at her dejected flame thrower she decided to try and soften the blow.

"Oh come on you knew this was going to happen, think of it this way, now you don't have to come with excuses every time I ask about her for the next few months.

"I hate you." The words were muffled by the table from which he had not sat up.

"I love you too honey, now finish your breakfast and lets hit the road."

On the drive to the prison, Warren plugged himself in to his MP3 player and turned it up as high as possible.

The trip took forever, as usual and by the time Warren and his mother got to S.B.C. (super being confinement) Warren already felt exhausted. It took about forty minutes for Beth and Warren to clear all the red tape and finally make it to the back to see Warren's father. After a year and a half of visiting his dad, a rhythm immerged for Warren. Get to the prison, go through the security, and then Warren saw his dad first. (The prison had this 'one visitor at a time' rule. reasonable, if not irritating.) Than his Mom saw his dad, and than back through security (to make sure they aren't smuggling things out,) and finally home again.

There was one thing that never got easier and that was the actually speaking with his father part. The first two visits Warrens vocabulary had consisted of "Yeah" and "Nope" the visits lasted about ten minuets. Over the next several visits Warren actually made an effort to be nice, because making his Mom cry made him feel one million kinds of awful. Gradually the visits got longer and now he could manage a twenty-five to thirty minuet visit without feeling resentful. As long as he followed his routine that is. And what is the routine?

Warren walked in to the power suppressing room sat down and launched into it. It always started with the

Pleasantries 'Hello' and 'How are you.' ya know, than they talked about food. 'The meat loafs not half bad here.' 'I hate the meat loaf at school, I think it's made out of fish, I found a scale in it once.' Than they would talk about Beth. '…and than she backed right up into the phone pole.' 'And I have to drive home with her today.' and finally depending on the season foot ball or base ball. 'That pass was amazing; Eli Manning is getting better every game.' 'Personally I can't wait to see the Colts beat the Patriots.' 'Oh hell yeah.' Thusly the two of them avoided any conversation of real substance. That was not going to happen this time.

"So how's school going?" Tim asked.

"Umm fine, I told you that already."

"Really there's nothing you want to tell me about… anything?"

"Uh…I got an A on my history test last week," Warren tried.

"That's all? What about your friends, how are they?"

Warren was now nervous, they were headed towards a conversation of sustains something that usually the father and son both avoided like the plague.

"Fine…Will finally got a car." (A/N: not that he really needs it, he can fly)

"That's good, but do you have…you know, anyone _special_?"

Realization dawned on Warren.

"Mom called you!"

"Come on Warren, you know how your mother is about this stuff, she likes to have a "united front.""

Warren looked like he was about to erupt.

"So….what's she like?"

After a long pause Warren finally answered his father.

"She's…nice."

Tim looked at his son for a minute.

"She's _nice_? Out of every adjective in the English language you choose _nice_? Are you sure you're a teenage boy?"

"Well what do expect?"

"I guess you're right…Do I need to talk to you about anything?"

"Dad!"

"Just making sure Warren."

"Honestly, we're not even dating; we're just friends, why doesn't anyone believe that?"

"Because you keep saying it."

Warren was now at a loss for words so he just groaned.

"Look Warren, I know that I was never a model father," at this point made a sound that sounded half way between a grunt and a harsh laugh. "But I always did my best to take care of you and your mother and I know I couldn't do that at your age…I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't want to have to send off a baptismal card from my jail cell, ok?"

"Dad!"

"I mean it Warren, I don't make a lot of rules but this is one of them."

"I promise dad," Warren muttered.

"I love you son."

"I love you too dad," Warren said, looking up again. "But we are never having this conversation again."

"If your mother raised you right we won't have to."

* * *

The moment they were home Beth was in the kitchen putting a big dinner together. Warren was staying mostly silent, half in embarrassment and half in a pathetic attempt to make his mother feel guilty. It wasn't working. Beth was in her element, she loved having company. Warren quickly cleaned the down stairs and his room. Than set the table (they barely had enough plates, it usually being just the two of them.) He settled down with a book until the O'Donovan's arrived. They arrived in typical O'Donovan style, loudly. Warren had been worried that he would be unfit to socialize when his friends got there but much to his relief the moment he heard "Hey Warren! What's for dinner?"

"Nate!" Elaine and Bruce shouted at the boy's latent disregard for the manners that they had taught him.

"What I said 'Hi' first," Nate defended.

Warren started to smile and it stuck all the way through dinner.

Needless to say Beth immediately fell in love with Nate, pronounced Elaine, "sweet" and was discussing the finer points of murder mysteries with Uncle Bruce by dessert and coffee. When the conversation turned to Sir. Arthur C. Doyle vs. Agatha Christy, Nate tugged Warren's sleeve and motioned for them to make a break for it. They grabbed Elaine on their way passed and went up to Warren's room.

"Wow, Warren your room is so cool!" Nate said, jumping on Warren's bed.

"I like it." Warren responded.

"I have never seen so many movies in my life! Well you know, out side a block buster."

True enough Warren had two floor to ceiling shelves full of movies and C.D.s.

"Yeah well there mom's too, we just keep them in here."

Elaine was busy looking through Warren's bookshelves filled with classics and murder mysteries.

"Who's your favorite author?" Elaine asked, not looking away from the books.

"Steven King," Warren answered.

"I like Dr. Suess," Nate said, not liking being left out of a conversation.

"I've always been rather found of him myself," Warren said, in a completely serious voice.

"Hey you guys," Beth called up the stairs. "If anyone wants anymore ice cream they need to come down and get it before I put everything away."

Needless to say Nate was out of the room before the sentence was finished.

Warren and Elaine sat still for a second, not sure what to do next.

Elaine decided to break the silence.

"Your mom is really nice."

"Yeah, I think I'll let her live," as soon as that came out of Warren's mouth he mentally slapped himself. "Geez, sorry Elaine, that was a bad choice of words."

"It's ok; I don't like it when people walk on eggshells around me because of what happened. It is what it is; no amount of beating around the bush is going to change it."

"I guess…"

"So why are you so off today?" Elaine asked, changing the subject as she sat down on Warren's bed.

"What do you mean?"

"You're strangely quiet and calm; it's out of character for you."

"Maybe this is just how I behave at home."

Elaine studied him for a moment.

"No, something is wrong and if you don't tell me what it is I'll go ask your mom to see your baby pictures."

"How do you know if she even has them?"

"Your mom is the type of person who would have them."

"I hate the fact that you're right."

"So what's wrong?"

"I visited my dad today."

"Oh? How'd that go?"

"Good as always," Warren said shrugging. "We usually talk about normal stuff, you know, food, TV, sports."

"What did you talk about today?"

"Well…you came up in the conversation."

"Talking about school, huh?"

"Sorta, mostly talking about friends…" Warren said, sitting down next to Elaine. "And people who are more than friends…"

"You're loosing me Warren."

"Well…my mom and dad had this crazy idea that we're going out and my dad and I were talking about it today. On the way home I was thinking about it and kinda thought that it wasn't such a crazy idea."

At this point their faces were getting closer to each other's. Warren was half scared and half thrilled while Elaine was just plain old thrilled.

They were only centimeters away from one another when: "Lainy! We've got to go!"

Elaine stopped, smiled at him and then stood up and left. Leaving a thoroughly confused Warren in her wake.

"_Damn it, we are going to have to talk about that later," _Warren said to himself.

After she was out of sight, Elaine silently jumped up and down with excitement.

"_He likes meee! He likes meee!" _(A/N: Now if you've been paying attention in the story you know that this is quite out of character for her, but come on, tell me you wouldn't be jumping up and down.)

* * *

In Bruce's car

Elaine was sitting in the front passenger seat in her uncle's red Focus with a happy expression on her face. It was strangely quiet in the car, there was no music, not much talking either.

"Ok are you going to tell me what happened or not?"

"Nothing Nate." Elaine replied still smiling.

"So I should hold off getting a wedding gift than?" Bruce joked.

Now Elaine blushed deep red (that's the problem with pale skin, blush shows up real easily)

"Knock it off you two, nothing is going on." _Yet, _she silently added.

* * *

Warren walked down the steps five minutes after the O'Donovans had left, his face still shocked. His mother smiled at him.

"What?" he asked, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

"I want blonde grand-babies," she answered, holding back laughter.

"MOM!"

* * *

(N): "Yes! Now we have a reason to have this be under Romantic Humor!" (K): "Am I the only one who is absolutely thrilled that it's football season? So tell us what You Favorite Football team is in your review!"

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori.


	14. Not What I Expected

(N): *Falls over* (K): "NORI! Noooo, only the _good_ are suppose to die young!" (N): "Shut up, you jackrabbit, I'm not dead, I've grown faint from the lack of reviews we got on our last chapter!" (K): "Do you mean to tell me that you pretended to DIE just because you didn't get what you want?" (N): "Um…yeah." (K): "Hmh…we could totally use that…"

REVIEW!

* * *

Warren was pacing the floor of his kitchen, he was nervous and he was nervous he paced. Too bad Beth HATED pacing.

"Warren, just call her," she said for the millionth time.

"It's not that simple," Warren said back, he hadn't told his mother what had happened but she figured most of it out on her own.

"Warren, call her."

"I ca-" Warren was interrupted by the phone ringing; it was Elaine's cell phone.

"Answer it," Beth said, leaning over Warren's shoulder.

Warren sighed and reached for the phone.

"Hello," he answered, keeping his voice surprisingly steady.

"Hey," said a voice (not Elaine's voice).

"Nate?"

"Yup, I'm just calling to see why Elaine's walking on clouds."

"Oh…uh…" Warren wasn't exactly sure how to explain to the eight year old that he had almost kissed his big sister.

"Did you kiss her?"

"NATE!" Warren yelled, only be cause it seemed like something Elaine would have done if she had heard him.

"Funny, that's what Elaine said…."

"Nate, you're too young to be worrying about these things, why don't you just watch some cartoons?"

"YOU DID KISS HER!" Nate shouted, the denial had confirmed it. "Is she your girlfriend now?"

"Not exactly…" Warren said, giving up on trying to hide anything from the boy. "We didn't really kiss, just almost."

"Almost is good enough," Nate answered in his plotting voice. "Alright, you need a collared shirt and a tie."

"Why?"

"Because to night you're taking Elaine on a date." You could practically hear the evil smile on his mouth.

"Nate I can't just randomly take her on a date," Warren tried to explain. "We're friends; I don't want to mess everything up."

"You won't, I'm going to take care of everything. Just get dressed in something nice and be at my house by eight to night ok?"

"Na-" Nate hung up the phone.

"_My first date with Elaine is being handled by an eight year old. God save me."_

* * *

At the moment Elaine was very much in the same boat as Warren.

"Elaine, where's the black dress you wore to Aunt Cecilia's wedding?" Nate said as he tore through Elaine's closet.

"Why?" Elaine asked, dodging the shoes Nate was throwing.

"Be because you'll need it for tonight."

"Why? We're not going anywhere."

"You are," said Nate as he looked upon a pair of in particularly high heels.

"Where? With whom? Why"

"To a restaurant, with Warren, because you two are going on a date."

Elaine's face went into shock, she recovered quickly.

"Nathanial, what have I told you about meddling in other people's life?"

"Elaine, what have I told you about trusting me? I've got this."

"Thank you George Lopez," Elaine said rolling her eyes (A/N: we don't own George Lopez, just thought we'd let you know).

"Just have the dress on by eight ok?" Nate left before Elaine could argue.

Elaine sat down on her bed. She wanted to go, of course she did. That's the only reason Nate was going through all this trouble was because neither she nor Warren had any idea of how to ask some one out.

Elaine smiled and walked over to her (now messy) closet and pulled out a black dress. It was black with black lace details and ended just above her knee, she looked good in it and she knew it.

"_Maybe this won't be too bad; after all I get to go on a date with Warren. And any date with him is better than none, even if it's arranged by an eight year old."_

* * *

Nate smiled, proud of his handy work. He had been looking at picture of fancy French restaurants for almost an hour and he was pretty sure he had perfected it. The dining room had been transformed into one of the most romantic settings possible, candle light, white table cloths, the whole bit.

It was ten to eight and Elaine hadn't come out of her room since four when he told her that she was having a date with Warren, Nate was hoping that was a good sign.

There came a knock at the door (A/N: I have no idea why I wrote that like that). When Nate opened it he saw Warren (of course) in a black shirt and a red tie.

"You're early," Nate said, smiling.

"Better early than never," Warren said, looking to his watch.

"I think you messed that up," Nate said, peeking into the house. Elaine was still in her room. "Don't worry about it though, Elaine likes being early."

As Nate mentioned Elaine's name Warren's face froze.

"She, uh, knows about this whole deal right?"

"Yep, she's ready right now."

"Where are we going?"

"All questions will be answered." Nate said with a cheesy French accent. Warren was to busy convincing himself that he was NOT nervous to comment on the cheesiness. It was taking all the poor guy's will power not to pace the hall way. He settled for taping his foot, not as actively soothing as pacing but motion was motion. Nate shook his head at the poor wreck that was Warren Peace and went in to his room to put the finishing touches on the evening.

"Hey Nate, where is your uncle?" Warren had been expecting one of those 'touch my niece and I'll kill you.' type of talks. Not that he was complaining if he got to miss out on that experience, he just wanted to know if he should expect it or not.

"I arranged for him to be gone for the evening."

"Oh, um why?"

"You will see, now no more questions."

It was around this point that Elaine descended the stairs. Every cliché that Warren had ever scoffed at immediately came to his mind and at the same time his entire vocabulary deserted him. He knew he was staring, for the love of all that was holy he was looking her up and down, he also knew he couldn't stop. He could barley stop himself from panicking.

"Wow…um…Y-you…you…" He mentally smacked himself, _"Well this is off to a fan-frigen-tastic start, she'll think I'm a pervert._

"Thanks you clean up pretty well your self." Elaine replied quietly. _"Oh Lord, what was I thinking this is sooooo over my head! How can I get out of this with out looking like an idiot in front of him?"_

Thankfully Nate, dressed in a mini-tuxedo clomped in to the front hall. It was like he had spider senses and knew his victims, or rather; guests were on the verge of bolting.

Both Elaine and Warren started to question the little devious creature, but he beat them to it with "This way please" and turning quickly back in to the room from whence he came. The two teenagers shrugged and followed him in to the dinning room, and were amazed. The room looked like a five star restaurant (courtesy of Nate's illusionary powers) the boy turned and motioned them to the table.

"Tonight we are serving the finest of Italian cuisine."

"Sooo, Pizza Hut?"

"No need to be sarcastic Elaine, this did require a bit of work so you guys could be a little appreciative." Nate shot back, obviously miffed. Before Warren or Elaine could apologize he was off like a fish (and we do mean fish) to the kitchen.

Once inside Nate went to the back door and opened it. And low and behold on the back porch was none other than Zach-the-glow-stick. Or as of this moment Zach the pizza delivery guy.

"Hey little dude," Zach said in a stage whisper. "Here's the food. How's it going?"

"Hey big dude! They are trying not to seem nervous and failing miserably." He said with a smirk. "Tell the supreme over lords that all is going according to the plan." (A/N: Anyone want to guess who the supreme over lords are? If you said Layla and Magenta, you be right!)

"Ten four little dude, pizza guy is out." Zach snuck back to his car and took off. Nate dished the pan pasta from, yes, Pizza Hut onto some nice plates and walked the food out in to the dinning room. Elaine and Warren were sitting at the table making an attempt at conversation. Both gratefully stopped when Nate brought the food in.

"Bon apatite." He said with as he put their food in front of them with a flourish, and turned to leave.

"Wait, aren't you eating with us?" The panic was back and strong as ever.

"Um… No 'cause it's not my date. I know you guys don't do this often, but a date usually has a two person limit."

"Yeah but this date is in our dining room," Elaine pointed out.

"Rules are rules, I don't make 'em, I just enforce 'em."

Nate has left the dining room ladies and gentlemen! (A/N: yeah, we had to do that)

Warren and Elaine stared at each other.

"So… how you been?"

"Fine."

"For the love of Pete don't get all awkward now!" Nate shouted from the kitchen.

"What happened to the two person limit?" Elaine shouted back.

Nate poked his head in and glared. "You aren't making it easy."

"So," Warren interrupted before the banter became a full fledged argument. "How bought the Phillies this season?"

Elaine looked at him and did something totally out of character. Laugh, almost giggled. It was quiet but it was a laugh all the same.

Warren smiled and wondered how many more times he could get her to laugh like that.

From that point forwards the date went very well. They talked about things they liked as they ate their pasta and when they had finished dinner and the desert, that Elaine was very curious about how Nate managed to get, they decided to go on a walk.

They walked several blocks, in their semi-formal ware and did what they had been doing for the entire evening, enjoy each others company.

Warren was listening to Elaine tell about how Nate's powers started to immerge by him making his imaginary friend come to life, when he saw a gray non-descript sedan driving slowly across from them. Not some thing he would worry about usually but he realized he had seen this car three times in the last half-an-hour. Once is normal, twice is a coincident, but three times is a pattern.

"Warren?" Elaine immediately caught the suspicious vibe coming from Warren and left off the story telling. Warren suddenly put his arm around Elaine's shoulder and bent to whisper in her ear. To any observer they were a young couple in love, oblivious to the rest of the world. In reality however…

"We are being followed, by that grey sedan that's about to go around the corner." He said quietly into her ear.

"That road reconnects to this one in two blocks," Elaine whispered back.

"We need somewhere to duck into, preferably somewhere with security guards."

"Its almost ten o'clock, banks and jewelry stores are all closed, and the police station is on the other side of town. Beyond that this is a residential area for the most part."

Warren thought for a minuet.

"Ok lets take the fastest way back to your house and hope for the best," They started to walk faster.

They made it almost half-way when they saw head lights. They kept walking; the lights came closer, closer, and closer. Elaine felt Warrens arm tighten around her, she felt slightly more safe.

"_Almost there, almost there, almost there."_ Warren kept repeating in his head. He did not want his date interrupted by being kidnapped.

Suddenly the gray sedan screeched in front of then, barely giving Warren enough time to pull Elaine out of the way.

"What the hell is your problem?" Warren yelled as the driver stepped out of the car.

"Mr. Peace," said a cold, even voice that Elaine had not forgotten.

"Agent Mason," Elaine said, it was more a statement than anything else.

"I would like you both to come with me right now," Agent Luke Mason said, opening his car's rear door.

"I don't think so," Warren said, defensively pulling Elaine further from the F.H.P.A.P. agent.

"I'm afraid you have to," Mason said, now looking dead at the couple. "Nate misses his older sister."

* * *

(K): "Duh duh DUUUUH!" (N): "Yes yes, drama!" (K): "Sorry it's taking us forever to up date, but life's crazy right now. We'll update again as soon as possible, we don't want people to think we're not writing anymore."

Bravo Yankee Echo, Katrinka and Nori

PS: we're thinking about doing a spin off one-shot once we finish this, it would be about Nate. Tell us what you think in your review!"


	15. All Is Revealed

I am so, so, so, sorry that this is taking for ever. Blame home improvement projects and destructive two year old brothers, I promise that I will be more timely with the next and last chapter.

* * *

Warren and Elaine sat side by side in the back seat and glared daggers at the F.H.P.A.P Agent seated across from them. Occasionally Warren would open his hand and let flames erupt from it and than close his fist there by extinguishing the fire. Most people would have the good sense to be at least slightly concerned by a teenage girl who knew at least eight different ways to kill a person with a spoon, and a boy who could burn him like a witch in Salem seated not two and a-half feet away from them. But Agent Mason seemed to have been born without the natural instinct of self-preservation.

"_Or he knows some thing we don't know."_ Warren thought grimly.

Elaine was holding on to her calm collected act by threads, she wanted to beat Nate's location out of this guy, go get her brother and find some where safe to hide. She was thankful that Warren was with her, it was good to have some one you trust at your back.

The car drove back to Elaine's house and parked out front. Elaine was confused, weren't they taking them to Nate? She was about to demand answers when Agent Mason stepped out of the car and walked up to the porch. Warren and Elaine looked at each other then followed him.

"After you," the agent said pleasantly.

Elaine, still confused, opened the door. How far away was Nate that they had to stop at home? The panic that she had previously had under control hit full force. The door swung open and… there at the dinning room table sat Nate doodling on a note pad.

"Hey, you guys are back sooner than I thought you'd be. There were some suite people here to see you but I told them I wasn't allowed to open the door."

Elaine crossed the room and gathered Nate into her arms, and Warren slammed Mason into the wall.

"What the hell do you-"

"I said that Nate missed Elaine, I never said that he was anywhere but home." The agent interrupted.

"Get out!" Warren all but shouted the order. The F.H.P.A.P. Agents calmly exited the house.

Once they were gone he walked over to Elaine and Nate. Elaine was shaking all over and a few tears had escaped her. Warren wrapped his arms around the two of them and tried to regain control of his breathing. Of all the low…sneaky...evil! Dear heaven, he had damn near committed a triple homicide and they stood there smirking at him!

After a few minuets Elaine stopped shaking, and Nate decided it was safe to ask what had freaked two of his favorite people out so badly. And once the circumstances were explained to him…

"Those sneaky, manipulative,.. Bast.. Jack a… Warren! Cuss for me, I'm running out of words I can say!" The angry nine year old exclaimed.

"I would gladly do that for you bud, but words cannot describe the kind of slime those people are."

"Wanna bet?" Elaine asked, she then let out string of curses and swears that were so profane that it shocked Warren and almost made Nate faint.

"I've never heard you talk like that," Warren said, amazed.

"I didn't know people _could_ talk like that," Nate seconded.

At that moment there was shuffling outside the front door. Warren wasted no time lighting up, anticipating a return visit from their dear friends. Instead they came face to face with Beth Peace and Uncle Bruce.

"Good heavens Warren, put those out," Beth said, indicating his two lit hands.

"Mom?" Warren said in shock. "Why are you here?"

"A couple gentlemen came to the house, flashed their badges and told me they were government," Beth answered. "Then they took me to a car where I found Bruce."

"The same thing pretty much happened to me," Bruce said. "What's going on?"

Before Elaine, Warren or even Nate could answer a short man in a dark suit walked up to the group.

"I believe I might shed more light on that subject than anyone else here," he said, in a quiet voice. "May I come in?"

Everyone exchanged glances, the looks on Warren and Elaine's face were both completely clear: Hell no. But Bruce decided to give the harmless looking man the benefit of the doubt and let him in.

Mr. Suit took a seat at the dinning room table and gestured for everyone to sit down.

"I think it's about time someone tells you what F. H. P. A. P. is really about," Mr. Suit said, getting right to the point (sorta).

"You think?" Warren said, his eyes were slits at this point.

Mr. Suit ignored Warren's blatant rudeness and continued to smile at them.

"We do more than just place heroes in cities with high crime rates, we place heroes in agencies all around the world."

"What?" Elaine didn't understand. "Of course you place them all around the world, there are heroes in Japan just like there are here. What's the big deal?"

"The _big deal_," he said, putting emphasis on Elaine's words. "Is the part about the agencies. Do you think that every person with powers runs around in spandex shouting out catch-phrases?"

Elaine had to admit, it sounded unlikely.

"Not every graduating hero is put in a cape, in fact, the best of the bunch are pulled right from your classes."

"You mean that all the heroes we see on the news are just…?"

"Those who didn't make the cut," Mr. Suit finished. "They're all fine and good in their…_dramatic_ way, but they aren't cut out for the _real_ hero work."

"The _real _work?" Warren repeated. "Because fighting giant robots isn't _real_ work."

"I never said that they weren't helpful. They truly do a lot for the cities that they protect, but think about it. Do you really want the fate of the world, or international security, resting in the Commander's hands?"

Every one took a moment to consider that idea, and no they most certainly did not.

"What does any of that have to do with us?" Warren asked.

"We're recruiting," Mr. Suit said with a smirk.

"You're what?" Beth said, feeling that now was a good time for parental concern.

"We feel that both Elaine and Warren would make wonderful operatives for our agency. They would be researching and investigating super threats. Nothing big at first of course, but with time they could be excellent field agents."

"I don't know…" Beth said.

"I have a lot of questions as well." Bruce added.

"So you harass us, semi-threaten us, and cause us no end of anxiety. And now you're giving us a _job offer?"_ Elaine deadpanned. "It never occurred to you to just ask?"

"Due to the sensitive nature of our work, it is necessary to be extremely cautious. If our purpose had been leaked into your school there would have been a lot of memory erasing to do, which we try to avoid."

"All that aside you just caused us a lot of grief and now you want us to-" Warrens voice had been getting louder and louder as he spoke, he stopped when he felt his mother put a hand on his shoulder.

"Elaine you have to do this!" Nate exclaimed.

"And why do I have to?"

"Because you'll be a secret agent!" Nate almost shouted.

Suddenly the room was a long corridor and James Bond was sneaking down it as the mission impossible theme played. Mr. Suit looked at Nate with interest but held his tongue when he caught the double glare from his to potential employees.

"I think every one needs some time to think about this and a good nights sleep." Beth said,

motioning for the Agents to leave. After they had left and Warren and Beth had gone home, Bruce started some tea and Elaine said it was passed Nate's bed time.

"But I wanna-"

"Come on Nate," Elaine said, walking up the stairs.

"You really should take that guys offer," Nate said once he was in bed.

"Just because you want me to be a secret agent?"

"No, because I don't think you'd like running around in a cape."

This was true.

"I don't know Nate," Elaine said, shaking her head. "These people manipulate and pull strings and I don't know if I'd be able to do that with my life."

"Are you kidding? Chasing bad guys, keeping the world safe, and Warren to boot! You couldn't get a job better for you if you tried! I think the only down side would be all the paper work."

"All right its not the job so much as giving in to those… those…"

"I think we have had enough colorful language to night don't you?"

Elaine turned to look at her Uncle who had entered without her noticing, and nodded. They both kissed Nate good night and shut the door behind them. Once out in the hall Elaine tried to talk to her Uncle but he held up his hands to silence her.

"I pretty much know what your going to say, and to save time I'll just tell you what I'd tell you after the talk . Firstly, while the underhanded tactics F.H.P.A.P. used were extremely unpleasant, you should not let your hurt feelings influence your judgment. Secondly, whatever your decision I will support you. No one will make you do anything you don't want to do. Lastly, talk to Warren about his thoughts on this as well. Remember he is going to be effected by this too." With that Bruce kissed his niece and went off to bed.

Elaine sighed and trudged towards her room. Tomorrow was the due date of the dooms day project and, even though she needed it, she knew that sleep would not be forth coming tonight

~The next morning~

Warren lugged the box of supplies for the project towards his locker. He was tired and irritable due to lack sleep. Anyone who dared so much as look at him funny was in for an extremely unpleasant experience. He put the box down and waited. Like clock work Elaine turned the corner and started heading towards him, when she got there he got ready to talk but…

"Listen Warren," She began. "I don't want us to be talking about it at school. We really don't want it to get out. Also, and please keep in mind that I mean this in the most caring way possible, you look like hell warmed over. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"For a few hours." He grunted distractedly.

Elaine sighed and covertly took Warrens hand keeping it hidden between their box of project stuff and the locker. The sudden touch brought Warrens attention to her face.

"For the rest of the day we are not going to think or talk about it, today will be like any other day, we are going to get through this and every thing will be fine." Warren started to say something but she cut him off again. "I know we can't ignore it, we'll hang out tonight and figure it out."

Warren smiled, hugged her tightly and prepared to face a day that promised to be a nerve grinder. Thusly did the first trial approached. Over Elaine's left shoulder Warren caught a bouncing ball of greenness barreling towards them. It was too late to escape.

"Hey you guys! How are you? Anything new, maybe? Hum?" Layla said, wiggling her eyebrows.

The fact that they had been on their semi-official first date last night had completely gone out of both Elaine and Warrens minds, but with Layla standing before them with that smug all-knowing smile on her face it donned on both of them like a thunder clap.

"It was you!" Warren shouted.

"No silly," Herself responded. "It was Nate, he is sooo cute! I just helped a bit. So give me all the details. What did you talk about? Where did you go after dinner? Was there making out involved!"

"LAYLA!" Elaine shouted. All Warren could do at the moment was splutter and smoke. His face had turned an interesting shade of red…

"Well, you can tell me later, bye!" Layla said quickly. She could recognize some of

Warrens 'your pushing it' signs and he had three out of five going on right now.

_"I wonder what ticked him off?"_ She thought as she hurried away.

* * *

Well that's it for to day please review. I'll send you a Christmas cookie!


	16. Happily Ever After

Sorry, sorry, sorry I'm late! Lots going on. But no excuses on to the exciting conclusion of the story. P.S. we don't own Mc Donald's. Seriously, you even considered it a possibility?

* * *

Elaine sat on the curb of the Sky high parking lot and waited for Warren. It was taking him a while to clean up after his class so she had time to organize her thoughts, formulate some question, and run figures in her head. In other words, worry. But to be fair she did come up with a plan of sorts.

She heard foot steps behind her, she turned smiling… and the smile died on her face. There not five feet from her stood Michel Norse, with a none to friendly look on his face.

"Well, well, well out and all alone, not a good idea blondey. I think we should find some place where we'll be safer, and more comfortable, and than you and I can have a … talk." Elaine didn't bother talking back, while he had been chattering she had analyzed the situation and came to the conclusion that no one was close enough to help her and that she would have to stall Norse till Warren showed up, putting numbers on her side. That in mind Elaine got into a defensive position and waited for her enemies first move. She did not wait long.

"Ohhhh, we're going to be difficult are we? Well, who says that this can't be fun too?" Norse leered and leaned forwards to grab at her.

"_Creep!"_ Elaine took off like a rocket. She jumped and dodged two beams of green energy, and did a perfect back flip over a short wall that was prompt hit with a flaming beam. She spotted the janitors broom and decided to make use of it. Rounding the corner Elaine used the broom Jackie Chan style (A/N; I don't own Jackie Chan In case you didn't know.) knocking Norse in the face and than tripping him so he fell on his ass and looked for all intensive purposes like a pansy. He got up quickly and let loose a beam of ice. Elaine was close to clear, but close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.

The beam caught her left wrist and snagged her to the wall she had used for cover earlier, she collided with an audible thud. Elaine moaned and shook her head to rid herself of the spinning, aching feeling. It didn't do much good and when she looked up she saw Norse approaching. He had blood running from his nose and a very angry expression on. As he got closer Elaine gathered herself up against the wall making her self as compact as possible. To Norse it looked like she was cringing and trying to flinch away from him, but in reality she was gathering her strength so as soon as he was close enough Elaine shot out her right leg and kicked him in the knees as hard as she could. He went down with a scream and Elaine proceeded to kick him in the throat that was now in her range, that cut short his screaming. Elaine started desperately tugging at her hand that was trapped. Once Norse was up she would be coverless and with out to many more tricks her time would eventually run out.

Speak of the devil, Norse was already working himself into an upright position. Rasping and choking, he got up, eyes glowing, he was done with games. Just as Elaine was sure he would blast her (or worse) an extremely large fire ball landed on Norse's head, lighting his hair on fire. Norse predictably started to panic, Warren (who else?) ran up to Norse, picked him up by the shirt and threw him six feet towards the door that he had come through. A team of security officers was waiting there with fire extinguishers.

Paying no more attention to the damage he had caused, Warren turned to Elaine, got down on his knees. Heating his hands, he began to melt the ice.

"Great timing."

"Are you okay?"

"As long as I don't get frost bite, I'll be fine." Elaine replied . Elaine could see the angry fear in Warren's eyes, and he knew she was freaked out. As soon as Elaine's hand was free, Warren helped her to her feet, but kept her hand wrapped in both of his larger warm hands. Principal Powers approached them

"Ms. O' Donavan, Mr. Peace, I want to assured you that stiff legal action will be pursued so as that this will never happen again." She said in a very clipped tone of voice. Such scandal and felonies were not tolerated by Powers, period. Elaine said some thing that resembled 'thank you' Warren only nodded. He was wearing a thin t-shirt and Elaine could see a muscle working in his right shoulder blade. Yeah, it was definitely time to go.

* * *

Warren kept his attention on the rode ahead of him. He had been almost completely silent the whole time since they had left Sky high. Elaine looked at him, and cocked her head as though she was debating with her self, she nodded suddenly having come to her decision and told Warren to turn right. Warren complied with out a word. Every horrible thing that could of happened to Elaine was running through his head. It had been sheer luck that Warren had heard the security team headed or the parking lot, his mind started to spiral down the dark rode of what might have happened, when Elaine jerked him back to reality.

"Turn left here."

Warren turned with out commenting but had now realized that they weren't going to either of their homes and that she hadn't told him where she wanted to go. He was about to ask when…

"Turn in here," Warren looked at her in confusion.

"Into the McDonald's?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes," She said, smiling slightly. "the McDonalds. And lets go through the drive through, ok? I don't feel like dealing with the counter people. I got this really rude teen in here once, I'm sure that most of the other employees are nice or that maybe she was having a bad day, but I had Nate with me and she said a word that I try not to repeat." Her tone was so normal and common place that Warren felt an unwilling laugh escape him as he directed the car through the drive in.

Warren parked in the far left of the parking lot where the two heroes-in-training got a good view of the setting sun, but not blinded by it. Neither of them were all that hungry really, so they got a large fry to share and two medium chocolate shakes. They sat munching and slurping in silence.

"Ok, I've got to ask. Why are we doing this?" Warren finally said.

"Doing what exactly?" Elaine replied with playful smile.

"Don't be a smart ass you know what I mean."

Elaine smiled.

"My Mother was a bit of a health nut, she made up for it by being an awesome cook but we didn't do fast food very often, and when we did it was a treat. Like for being really brave after a doctors appointment or some thing like that. I decided that after today, and not to mention last night, we both deserved a treat.

Warren smiled back.

"Truth be told, I remember my Mom taking me to McDonalds as a kinda treat too."

Elaine finished her food and patiently waited for Warren to be done also. When he tossed his last fry up in the air and caught it in his mouth she started.

"Alright on to business. First, and most important items first, our first date went well, right up until the abduction thing, and I want to know if you… well ah, .. I want.."

The words weren't coming but she did manage to keep looking him in the eye. As she had come to expect, Warren helped her out of her verbal confusion.

"I want to go out again too. If that's what you want." He replied quietly.

"Yes, that is exactly what I want." Elaine responded with relief and elation.

"So is there any thing I need to know about my girlfriend?" Warren asked, with a 'very pleased with life in general' smirk.

"Just that moving around a lot, and an aversion too most people in the past has left me a woefully unprepared for the job." She replied with a slightly embarrassed expression.

"And you?"

"Pretty much the same problem. Most of the girls at school will not talk to me. Though they don't have a problem staring at my butt if they think I'm not paying attention." Elaine smiled at Warrens expression, and jumped in to the next topic.

"So, the secret agent idea?"

Warren frowned and shrugged, "I don't really want to help em' but I do think its important work that we would be good at."

"My thoughts exactly, as long as I don't have to bring coffee to Agent Mason. That would be too much to bear.

"In other words, its our pride against the common good, I was afraid of that."

"Yes to the job than, but not before we get a lot more information as to what we will be doing, and where, and why, and so an and so forth. No reason for them to think we are actually interested until absolutely necessary."

Warren smirked, "You do realize that since we're dating, the hippie is going to see it as us bowing to her will."

"Yes I had realized that, an unfortunate side affect really. But I have decided you are worth it."

Warren laughed and than yawned.

"Ok," Elaine said. "time to go home. And by the way you can tell Nate the news."

Pictures of the overly enthused Nate bouncing around and shouting 'I knew it!' while making God knows what appear immediately crowded into Warrens head.

"Fine, and you tell my Mother."

(pause)

"How bout' we tell everyone together?"

"You know, I like that plan." Elaine rolled her eyes at him and insisted on driving home slightly for revenge, but mostly because Warren was operating on roughly four and a half hours of sleep and she didn't want her boyfriend to fall asleep and kill the both of them after they had gotten everything settled.

"O Darn it."

"What?" said Warren almost asleep in the passenger side.

"It just occurred to me, Nate is going to take credit for this."

"Well, credit where credit is due I suppose."

They laughed and went into Elaine's house to 'break' the news.

Nate, and Beth's reactions were every thing that could have been expected, Bruce was far more sedate but just as happy. Though he did give Warren the "hurt her and die" speech soon afterwards. The next month Warren informed his Dad as much as possible, (as it turns out high security secret organizations have a slight problem with convicted felons knowing of their excitants.) and introduced him to Elaine.

The deal Warren and Elaine made with F.H.P.A.P. allowed them to finish high school. And while they did start out at the bottom of the ladder neither of them ever had to get coffee for their tormentors.

* * *

Epilogue

-ten years later-

Warren leaned back in his home-office chair and stretched his back. Paper work, was indeed as Nate had predicted, a nightmare. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something dart behind the door, he smiled and said out loud.

"I wonder if I should have pizza for dinner to night? Maybe a large with every thing on it, but who could I get to share it with me….?"

"I'll help you Daddy!" shouted the six year old little girl behind the door. "Its me, Abby."

"What a surprise." Warren responded without looking or sounding surprised at all. "You know you should be taking your nap right now."

"I'm too big for naps, Kyle and Bethy are little enough, but not me."

"I'll make you a deal, if you go and try to stay quiet in your room until Mama calls you I'll talk her in to having ice-cream to night. Deal?"

"Ok Daddy!" And off went the little firecracker. Warren hoped in her boredom she wouldn't set her curtains on fire… again. He felt arms go around his shoulders and leaned back into his wife's unexpected hug.

"I don't know what Nate is going on about, you so spoil her more than me."

"I do not."

"Do so."

"Alright whatever, we're having pizza and ice-cream tonight anyways." He retorted.

Thursday night was family night, barring disasters, crime, and general mayhem. Bruce, Beth, and Nate all made a point of stopping at the Peace home and seeing each other. Warren and Elaine managed to keep their jobs under taps, there by remaining friends with Stronghold and Co. Catching terrorists and drug lords and still managing to tuck their kids in at night, they lived as happily as any one can in this life. There were of course the normal disturbances, like when Nate decided it would be _hilarious _to prank them on their first anniversary. And the first time Abby lit something on fire. Or the time that little Kyle turned completely invisible in the middle of the park while Beth was watching him. But all thing considered it was a happy life.

Nate, as predicted, took full credit.

The end FINALLY! Thanks for the feed back as always we appreciate it. Later days, Katrinka the Great.


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